Silenced Screams
by Erudite-Dauntless Girl
Summary: Thirty-one Hunger Games have gone by with marginal reviews. But this year, The President of Panem wants to change that. He wants something never before seen. The Head Gamemaker wants her life, so she does all she can to spice this year's games up. Horrifying mutts, a night-mare worthy arena, and 24 diverse tributes. Listen closely and hear the screams. The silenced ones.
1. District One's Reapings

Chapter 2:

District One's Reapings

~~Satin's Point of View~~

"Satin? Baby, wake up," Ryan whispered into Satin's tiny ear. Her eyes fluttered open to find Ryan in front other. They were laying side by side in Satin's queen size bed. His deep blue eyes shone with contentment, and his jet-black locks of hair were in his eyes. There was a glittering diamond bracelet on her dainty wrist that she was twisting around with her other hand. She smiled at the memory of the night before. Easily one of the best nights of her life. Ryan had proposed to her with a beautiful diamond bracelet since it was a tradition in District One to propose with bracelets.

"Why? This is perfect," she mumbled. In the warmth of her fiancée's hold, she felt that life was perfect. He smiled, and took a lock of her auburn hair in his hand and wrapped it around his finger.

"Because today is the Reapings, and I know that you want to look your best," he said. That was true. Satin absolutely loved to look her best.

"Well, yeah. I do! Daddy bought me this brand new Schautre dress for this year, because it's my last Reaping. Do you want to see it?" she asked in a flirty voice.

"Babe, you know I do!" he said excitedly, running up to her and hugging her from behind. She squealed and escaped his hold, dashing for her gigantic walk-in closet. She stumbled around through the color-coded closet until she came to the purple section, which was the largest section. She shuffled through the lavender dresses, the lilac dresses, the violet dresses, until she finally came upon the red-violet section of dresses. The very first dress of this section was the dress that Satin planned on putting on. It was a beautiful fuchsia color. The dress was made out of pure silk and was bunched and gathered in certain spots to give it a ruffled look. The hem of the dress pooled around Satin's feet. The dress also had tiny crystals sewn into it so that whenever Satin moved, the dress glimmered and sparkled. Satin looked into the gigantic mirror on one of the closet walls and smiled. She thought she looked beautiful, and she still didn't even have any make-up on!

"Ry-Ry, I have it on! Come look at me!" she squealed excitedly.

"Oh my God! You look stunning, babe!" he said, and bent down to kiss her perfect, rose-petal lips. She smiled faintly and kissed him back, running her hands through his dark hair. She felt a yearning for more, and pulled him closer. The kiss became more desperate, more passionate. They stumbled backwards, until they fell onto her bed, where they broke apart at the sound of a disgusted younger sister.

"Like ew! You guys are disgusting! Get a room!" Satin's younger sister Silk screamed from the doorway. "I can't believe I just saw that! You guys are so gross!"

"Hey! We have a room, and you're not supposed to be in it!" Satin said, giggling. She got up, and pushed Silk out of the doorway. After Silk was gone, Satin ran back over to the bed.

"Pushy, are we, love?" Ryan said with a smirk on his tan face. Satin smiled, but punched him, hard, in the arm. "Baby, I was just kidding!" he said with his arms in the air in defeat. "Boy, do you pack a mean punch! I love you so much!"

She smiled in triumph. She had been practicing her self-defense skills since so many men had tried to jump her. Though she was only eighteen, and was very small, her body had matured very much, earning her a lot of glances at her chest from the disgusting boys in District One. She loved Ryan because he wasn't one of those people that only liked her for her body. He had actually gotten to know and love her.

"I love you, too, Ryan," she said as she tucked a piece of long hair behind her ear, a habit she did when she was happy.

"Okay, baby. I gotta go get dressed for the Reaping. I'll see you afterwards," he said, wiggling his eyebrows, suggesting something. She giggled at his silliness. Ryan walked up to her, bent down, and kissed her briefly.

"Bye!" she said as he walked out of her room. Satin walked to her white vanity and began applying her makeup.

About twenty minutes later, Silk walked into Satin's room. She came up and sat down next to her big sister.

"Thank God he left! You guys were getting pretty into it back there! When's your wedding supposed to be again? Am I going to be invited? Did you find your wedding dress yet? Who's going to be invited?" Silk blurted out, disrupting the silence, and making Satin, who was still applying her makeup, jump up.

"The wedding is supposed to be in five months. And yes, of course you're invited! No, I haven't found my wedding dress yet, but I already have a perfect image of it in my mind! I have no idea who's going to be invited yet. Ryan and I are going to figure that out in a little bit here." Satin answered every question of her very talkative little sister. Silk, who was 14, was very different from Satin. Silk always had so much energy. She was always hyper, and talked a lot. She had bright blonde hair that was shoulder length, and was very tall; she was taller than her sister. Satin was calm and laid back for the most part. Satin talked often, but only when spoken to. Satin had long brown hair and was very short and dainty.

"Oh! Okay! I'm SO excited for your wedding! This will be so fun!" Silk screeched excitedly. Satin smiled at Silk. "Wait." Silk suddenly stopped chattering and froze. "Your hair looks awful! I can't believe that I didn't notice that yet! My god- it looks like a freaking rat's nest!" Satin froze too. She had totally forgotten about her hair and spent way too much time on her makeup! Satin looked over at her iTablet and checked the time. It read 11:43 in swoopy print. The Reaping would start at 12:00. That meant that Satin only had 17 minutes to do her hair.

"Oh no!" Satin exclaimed. "Quick, I need my Emergency Hair-Do Kit!" She watched her loyal sister rush into the bathroom and then return with a shiny black box. Silk ran over to the vanity and threw open the box. She grabbed a curler, a hairbrush, and a bottle of mousse. Then Silk went to work on her sister's "rat nest" of hair.

…

At 11:57, Silk was done with Satin's hair. Satin had admired herself in the sparkling mirror, twirling around to see all angles of her hair. Her hair was in a beehive twirl on the back of her head. Silk had left out Satin's bangs and curled them to frame her slender face. She thought she looked beautiful.

The two girls rushed out the door, through the streets, and to the bridges. The Town's center was built in a lake. To access the center, you had to cross one of the four bridges, one on each side of the square. On each bridge was a dazzling gate made of crystal and silver, making the gates all look like the gateway to heaven. Once you reached the end of the bridge, and stepped onto land, you would immediately be surrounded by pink and white cherry blossom trees, fitting the bright and colorful clothing of the District One citizens. On that particular day, the center of the square was occupied with a drab and poorly built stage for the district escort, the mayor, and the past Victors.

After their fingers were pricked, and they were marked present at the Reaping, Silk and Satin split up to go to their age section. Once Satin got into her spot in her section, she found her friends Shine and Genevieve. Genevieve's long blond hair was in large princess curls, flowing around her back. She had on a revealing red dress and black stilettos. Her green eyes sparkled when she saw Satin arrive. Shine had on a deep blue gown with sequins sewn into it. Her black and blue highlighted hair was to her shoulders, her bangs simply held back by a beautiful bobby pin with a deep blue and black butterfly on it.

"You look amazing!" Shine and Genevieve exclaimed in unison. Satin smiled, and spun around for them.

"You girls look stunning as well, may I add!" Satin replied in her perfect Capital accent. She was about to continue when she was suddenly cut off by a high pitched Capital voice that Satin recognized as Geranium Goldenwood's.

"Hello and welcome, citizens of the glamorous District One! Can I get some noise?" Geranium said to the crowd. Her audience cheered in response, excited for the Reaping. "Ah, there we go! You guys rock! And now, I present you with your mayor, Mister Barry Johnson!" She backed off dramatically, and her hideous mustard-yellow wig slid off onto the stage. The audience cracked up, but suddenly fell silent as Mayor Barry loudly cleared his throat into the microphone.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he began in a stern voice, "welcome to the Reapings for the 32nd Annual Hunger Games. As you all know, the Hunger Games were started as a way to…" he continued on, but Satin blocked it out this year since she had already heard it numerous times throughout her lifetime. Thoughts of her wedding drifted into her mind as the mayor continued on. Then she remembered that she had not told Shine and Genevieve about Ryan's proposal the night before.

"Hey," Satin nudged Genevieve with her bony elbow. Genevieve looked over at her.

"What is it?" Genevieve asked in a hurried whisper.

"Ryan proposed to me last night! I forgot to tell you guys last night. Sorry," Satin whispered back.

"I understand. You two were having some _fun_!" Genevieve said, raising her blond eyebrows suggestively.

"Ew! No!" Satin squealed, earning her some disdainful looks from the devout Hunger Games fans around her. It wasn't that Satin didn't like the Hunger Games. No, it was definitely entertaining to see her fellow district mates to make it out on top. She just wasn't somebody who would _be_ in the games. Unlike most citizens of her district, Satin hadn't ever trained for the Hunger Games.

"Alright!" screeched Geranium into the microphone. "Now it's time for the girl tribute!" The crowd cheered, and she stumbled over to the glass bowl in her six inch stilettos. She waved her tan hand around in the bowl, and pulled out a slip of folded paper. She teetered back over to the microphone, opened up the slip of paper, and read the name of the girl into the microphone.

"Satin Vital!"

~~Genist's Point of View~~

Genist heard the name and vaguely remembered her from school. But it was only vaguely because Genist had dropped out of school to train with his father for the Games. She wasn't in the main clique at school though, so he didn't know her very well. He knew that she was eighteen years old, as old as he was, and that she was very kind. So he was surprised when nobody volunteered for her. But he was glad that nobody volunteered for her, because she would be a very easy kill for him.

Genist watched her walk swiftly and gracefully up to the stage with a faint smile on her tiny, rose-petal lips. She looked calm and collected, even though he knew that she wasn't at all prepared for what was to face her soon. She was pretty, but he would kill her anyway. Maybe he would play with her in the arena, then destroy her. He smiled as he imagined her gruesome death, her writhing in a pool of blood.

His father had taught him at a young age to be ruthless. At the age of three, Genist had already been able to hit a bull's eye with an ax from twenty feet away. When Genist was seven, his father had chopped off his pinkie finger because Genist couldn't get a good grip on his spear. Being a Victor, Genist's father knew all of the secrets of the arena. He had killed thirteen tributes when he himself was thirteen years old. He was the youngest Victor in District One.

"And now for the boys!" Geranium yelled, pulling Genist out of his bloody thoughts. He watched as she walked over to the glass bowl that had his name in it six times. She immediately pulled out a slip of paper and came back to the microphone. "And this year's lucky male tribute is… Marbl-" Geranium was about to finish, but Genist cut her off.

"I VOLUNTEER!" Genist yelled. "I VOLUNTEER AS TRIBUTE!" He ran up on stage effortlessly and stood next to Satin, the other tribute. He towered over her by about fourteen inches, as he was 6' 3" and she was 5' 1". She looked up at him with terror in her huge green eyes, and he looked down at her, smiling. She began trembling as he shook his head, thinking of how easy a kill she was going to be.

"Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, please give a round of applause to your District One tributes for the Thirty-Second Annual Hunger Games, Genist and Satin!" The entire district exploded into cheers as Genist pumped his fists. He knew he would win. He absolutely knew he would win.

~~Satin's Point of View~~

Geranium announced Satin and Genist as the district tributes and made them shake hands. Satin shook his hand and noticed something unusual. He pulled away from the tight handshake, and wiggled his fingers. Satin was confused until she noticed that he was showing her something. She realized that the unusual thing was that he had no pinkie finger. She looked at him in horror, and he just smiled.

Three Peacekeepers came onto the stage to take the two into the Justice Building to meet with family and friends. Satin was lead away from Genist, and she let out a sigh of relief. She had a bad feeling about him. Though his blue eyes and sandy blond hair seemed friendly, he had a dark and scary side that Satin could feel. Satin shuffled her feet across the shiny hardwood floors of the Justice Building until they came up to a doorway. The Peacekeepers shoved her into the room, then walked away, snorting.

"Little girl's got a sweet ass on there," one of the Peacekeepers said. Satin could only hear them because they hadn't shut the door all the way. Satin was disgusted with them, but she didn't have the energy to go out there and confront them. She was shocked about the fact that she had been Reaped, and very scared about having to go into the arena with a gigantic guy like Genist.

"Ma'am, you have visitors," the other Peacekeeper said as the door opened wider. Satin's father, mother, and sister came in, each one embracing her. After they all stopped hugging, Satin sat in a velvet couch that was across from another couch. Her family sat across from her. They all sat in silence for a few moments until Satin's father broke the silence.

"You will win. You have to win, okay? I'm sorry we didn't train you. I don't want to lose you, honey. I love you so much," he said in a serious tone. Her father had always been a no nonsense man, even in emotional situations.

She didn't reply with words. She only nodded her head slowly, finally letting a tear slide down her cheek. She had tried to remain silent, calm, and strong on stage where the cameras could see her, but she didn't think that these rooms would be taped, so she let her emotions out. Even if only for a little while.

"Satin?" Silk asked shyly, probably for the first in her entire life.

"Yes, Silk?" Satin said back.

"I love you. And I really want you to win. Promise me that you'll win. I know that you told Daddy that you would, but I need you to promise me. Because then I can count in you to return. Can I count on you?" Satin sighed. She didn't want to lie to Silk, but she didn't want to say the truth because the truth was what would finally make it all true. It would break the shell of shock that was around her, and reality would come bursting through to her. The reality that she would die. But she thought that that was probably going to be the last time that she said to Silk, so she went with her lie.

"Yes. You can count on me to return." Silk smiled, relieved.

"I knew I could!" Silk hugged Satin tightly.

"I love you, too. I guess all of the things I planned on saying have been said, right?" said Satin's mother. Satin nodded and hugged her one more time. They pulled away, and Satin noticed that her mother was silently crying.

"I love all of you. I need you to go on the same without me, and stay strong. For me, okay?" Satin asked her family. They all nodded somberly.

"I'm sorry, but your visiting time here is up," said the first Peacekeeper. The family got up and shuffled out of the room, the Peacekeeper slamming the heavy door shut behind him fully this time. A minute later, he returned with Genevieve and Shine. The three girls hugged and cried for the whole three minutes they were allowed. All of the words that needed to be said were said through their actions. The Peacekeeper shoved the sniffling girls out of the door and slammed the door again. Satin sat down and put her head in her hands. She had pretended to cry when she was with her friends, but now she really was crying. She cried and cried, her feeling of calmness totally gone now. Satin then heard the heavy door open and looked up to see who was coming in. With her blurry eyes wiped off, she saw that it was Ryan standing in the doorway. She suddenly felt hopeful and happy.

He walked over to her, and gathered her in an embrace that was so heartfelt, so filled with love, that Satin began crying all over again. He just held the nape of her neck gently, and stood hugging her, swaying back and forth. She pulled back a little bit, and looked at him through blurry vision. Ryan put both of his hands on the nape of her clammy neck, trying to calm her down.

"Baby, shhh… You're going to be okay. You're going to live through this. You're going to make it through this. I believe in you. I love you," he said as he pulled her face closer to his, so that their foreheads were touching.

"I love you too," she replied simply, and leaned her head forward to meet lips with him. Their lips met, and the kiss was soft and sweet. It was of goodbyes and I love you's, of things that would never be said and things that had already been said. It was purely a kiss of love. No lust, or yearning. Only love.

And in that moment, if only for a moment, Satin felt that she would be just fine.

~~Genist's Point of View~~

The Peacekeepers led Genist into a room at the end of a long hallway. They shoved him into the room, and left without a word. Not that he wanted to hear anything. He waited on the plush velvet couch for somebody to come visit him. He knew that his father would come in, but didn't know why he hadn't come in already.

Then, the door opened and Genist was met by his father. He came in, sat down across from Genist, and waited. He waited a minute before speaking.

"Good job, son. You remember all of what I taught you, right? The three s's: show no mercy, staying will mean paying, and scare them all off. You'll want to have people scared of you. Then you'll run the Career pack. And you must be that part, understand? Boy, you've been training for this for your entire life! Just follow the three s's, and you'll be fine," his father said. Genist nodded his head because he knew he would win. He had trained his entire life, and his district partner was a weakling.

"I'm out. Win. I will see you soon," his father said as he left the room.

Genist waited for other visitors, and found that he had none. Which was absolutely fine with him. He didn't do well with people anyway.

**A/N: So, if you guys didn't already know, FanFiction has been taking off all SYOT's and SYOC's because it violates a rule about interactive stories. Well, they took mine off! So here is my new reposted version that begins with District One. Also, if you disagree with FanFicton's murdering of amazing stories, go to ****demigodgirl1000****'s profile and PM her to sign the petition!**

**If you have any questions regarding anything having to do with this whole SYOT dealio, please PM me. I can also let you know how many points you have if you want to know right then and there, otherwise, the points are posted on my profile. **

**Shout-outs:**

**Thank you ****Katy-kat15**** for sending in Satin. Review and let me know how well I portrayed her!**

**Thank you to ****The Peacekeeper **** sending in Genist. Review and let me know what you think of him! Also, I didn't write about him as much as I did for Satin because I wanted him to be a little mysterious, so please don't kill me!**

**Thank you to everyone who sent in a tribute as well! You guys rock! All of those tribute slots filled up in literally two days! Two days!**

**Thank you to everyone who has reviewed this story (when it was still up) and my other stories! Thank you again!**


	2. District Two's Reapings

**A/N: READ THE AUTHOR'S NOTE AT THE BOTTOM EVEN THOUGH IT'S EXCRUCIATINGLY LONG! THANK YOU!**

Chapter Two:

District Two's Reaping

~~Janus Stone's Point of View~~

"Janus, wake up!" Janus' twin sister, Juno, whispered into his ear. He snapped awake immediately and came into a crouching position, hitting his head on the top bunk of his bed. Having been trained for the arena at the District Two Academy for Future Victors, Janus had adopted very fast reflexes toward the slightest sound. "Whoa! Chill out, it's just me," she whispered fiercely.

"Sorry, reflexes!" Janus said loudly back to her. "What time is it?"

"It's five past two. We were supposed to be awake five minutes ago!" Juno yelled.

"Sorry, I just had so much fun last night, I had to get _some_ sleep! Even if it was just five minutes more." Janus, being naturally friendly and cheery, was invited to many parties, while Juno, who was quiet and shy, did not get invited to any parties. "Those girls were so damn hot! Dancing all over me and stuff. My God, it was amazing!"

"Stop being such a perv, Janus. We need to start training before the headmaster hears us! Get dressed in your training uniform, and let's go! Today is the Reaping, so we need to train. You're going to volunteer, right?" Juno said in a serious tone.

Janus smiled lazily, and said, "No, June. I'm not volunteering for the thing that I've been training for since I was eight years old." After seeing his sister's disapproving look, he added, "Juno, you know that I kid around with you all the time. Don't start being all serious on me now!" She smiled a little bit, flashing a tiny bit of what was left of her childhood innocence, but quickly regained her serious face.

Juno sighed, and got up. "Fine. Just keep in mind, being friendly will not get you very far in the arena. So you better start thinking what you say through before you say it," she said quietly as she slipped through the door of their dorm room. Janus got up out of his bed, crossed the room swiftly, and opened his drawer that had his only clothing that his father sent him. He dug around in the small drawer until he found the maroon and black striped shirt and the black shorts that he recognized as his training outfit. He slipped out of his sleeping clothes and put on the tight-fitting training outfit. On his way out of the room, he snuck a glance in the mirror and smiled at what he saw: short, buzz-cut blonde hair, pale blue eyes, a masculine square jaw, and broad, toned shoulders. _Oh yeah, _he thought, _looking sexy today! _

After a short jog down the hall and up some stairs, he found Juno taking out all of her anger on the dummy in front of her, slashing it with her dagger. Some of her anger was directed at their father who sent them to a boarding school in a remote part of the district, cut off from civilization. Janus didn't really mind being at the school, but he knew that Juno absolutely hated being trained and prepared for the screwed up games. Juno was a great fighter, despite her hatred of the Hunger Games. Janus actually enjoyed fighting, but would only fight with people who wanted to fight with him.

"Hey June," he said he walked into her training room.

She spun around to face him, dagger in her hand. "What took you so long? It's two thirty!" Janus put his hands up in mock surrender.

"Don't stab me because I was late! Come on Juno! Stop taking everything so seriously!" he said, turning to grab his own weapons.

"Gee, Janus. I'm sorry that I'm taking my own death seriously. I'm so sorry," Juno said through clenched teeth. He shook his head, but didn't reply, not wanting to make her even angrier. He picked up his spear, and worked on the routine that his trainer had taught him the day earlier. He started off by thrusting it directly in front of him, as if fending the person off. Then he ducked to the right, landing in a squat. The next step was his favorite: he somersaulted forward, propelling himself toward his target. He jumped up, and knocked the dummy's foam head off. Janus took a step back to see the damage he had done.

"I've seen better!" Juno taunted him from across the room. He smiled. She finally made a joke. That was the first time since they were eight years old that she had made a joke.

"You wanna see it right now?" Janus roared, and ran across the room, charging Juno. She giggled, revealing the rarely seen childishness of hers. He dropped low to the ground and grabbed a sword of Juno's. She ran up to him and slashed out in front of her. Janus smirked and calmly sidestepped it. She blew her bangs from her face, and tried again, this time putting her slender foot between his legs, and twisting her ankle. He lost balance and fell to the ground. She pinned him down and smiled.

"I guess you couldn't show it now," she said, twirling the dagger around in her hand nimbly.

"You're going to cut yourself if you keep doing that!" Janus said, trying to distract her so that he could gain the upper-hand. She continued to smile, and began to spin the knife faster as she brought it closer to his neck. Janus began to sweat a tiny bit. He knew that his sister would never hurt him, but he still had a sliver of doubt deep down that was true. After all, he had seen her fight. She would never, ever quit a fight. Even if it was the best thing to do, she would draw it out until she won, or until the other person was severely injured.

"Fine. I need to start practice with my throwing stars anyway," Juno said, stopping the dangerously low knife. Janus let out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding. She looked down at him and said, "You didn't actually think I would cut you, did you?" He shook his head absent-mindedly as he stood up.

"It's only three!" Juno said loudly. "We've only been training for fifty-five minutes!"

"Oh, God… I just want to go to sleep. See ya in the morning, sis!" Janus said.

"What a wimp! But okay… I guess grinding with girls at a party takes so much energy, doesn't it?" Juno teased.

"It sure does, Juno. It sure does," he said groggily. "See you at the Reaping." And with that, he left Juno to herself.

~~Juno Stone's Point of View~~

After Janus left, Juno continued to train. She threw the slender, sharp stars at the dummies, smiling every time that she heard the satisfying "thud" of the star lodging itself in the target's head. _ If only this was real life_, thought Juno, _because then there would be the blood. All of the slick, crimson blood. _Juno would never, ever admit it, but she just loved blood. The feel of it, sliding through her fingers. The way it flowed out, like a river of crimson. Though she didn't like her own blood. It disgusted her.

Juno continued to train for four more hours. She retreated silently back to her dorm room at seven o'clock, sliding into her bed. She lay there waiting until seven thirty, the time when the headmaster would come in and wake them up for training and breakfast. She checked her wristwatch, and it read seven twenty-nine. Twenty seconds, fifteen seconds, ten seconds, five seconds, two seconds until headmaster would wake them all up for the Reaping…

"Alright, up NOW!" The headmaster busted the door open and woke up all of the students. "It's Reaping day, so you all need to get up NOW! You're going to need a hearty breakfast. Get up, let's go! If you don't all wake up in five seconds, I'm going to pull the fire alarm on you, and you all know what that means!" _Yeah_, thought Juno. _A bunch of cranky, wet teenagers. Because that's exactly what we need right now._ But Juno sprung up out of bed and jumped into the formation that the students were supposed to assume in the morning. She looked around and found that no one else was in the position she was in.

"Perfect time, once again, Juno," the headmaster said. "I'm very impressed with you. Do you plan on volunteering today?"

"I do," she said back, eliciting moans from girls around the room.

"Girls, Juno shall volunteer today. None of you have had as great practices or times as her. It's her year. And, if I hear anyone try to volunteer, you'll all have a Running Night with good old headmaster here. And you all know how _wonderful _those sessions are."

"But, Headmaster Creevy, that's not fair!" a girl named Ivy whined.

"It is! And you'll have to live with it! One more word about it, and it's Running Night!" he snapped at Ivy.

"But it's my last year! Next year I'll be nineteen!" she somplained again.

"That's it! Late Night Running it is! Thanks to Ivy, girls, you must come running with me, all night!" he said. The girls all groaned and started slapping Ivy.

"Stop!" she shrieked. "Juno, help me!" Juno ran to help her, putting up her sweet and quiet façade for the girls. She pried the girls' hands off of Ivy.

"Breakfast," she mumbled softly. They all stared up at her, and began to shuffle out of the room. Juno looked around the room, and saw Xavier. He was in the back of the group of boys, running his hand through his dark brown hair. He looked over and saw her staring at him and smiled. She smiled back shyly, and walked out of the room to the dining hall.

An hour later, when all of the breakfast was eaten, Juno returned to the dorm room for free hour. She spent her time sleeping.

At nine-thirty, Janus woke Juno up from her dreamless slumber. She woke with a start, snapping up into sitting position.

"What?" she said fiercely. He had disrupted her sleeping, and it was, when she could find it, precious time.

"Free hour's up. And Headmaster found out that someone snuck into the training room. He's pissed!" Janus said. Their headmaster wanted the students to all have an equal amount of training, so when he found out that someone snuck in and got even more training time, he was extremely mad. The students had learned from experience. Ivy and Xavier had snuck in once, and left the door open after they did it, so the headmaster knew about it. Janus and Juno snuck in all the time, but never before had they made such a stupid mistake.

"Oh no… What's our punishment today, then?" Juno asked.

"We can't…. We're not…" he sighed and took a deep breath before finishing. "We're not allowed to volunteer. No one is allowed to. Not you, not me. It's so stupid!" Juno looked at him in disbelief. They couldn't volunteer? That wasn't fair! For half of the kids at the Academy, it was their last year of eligibility to go into the games! Then, Juno realized with a heavy heart that is was her fault that they weren't able to volunteer. She'd been the last one to train! She'd left the door unlocked!

"Dammit! It's my fault that we can't volunteer, Janus! I left the door open!" she yelled, angry with herself. "I can't believe I'm so stupid! It's all my fault!"

"Juno, don't beat yourself up. We all mistakes, okay?" he said reassuringly. But it didn't reassure her. It only made her more mad that her brother was so loyal, but so stupid too.

"Janus! We've been training for this our ENTIRE lives, and you're just going to give up on it? Why are you so stupid?" she yelled in frustration.

"June, relax. I have a way that we can win! Come here." He motioned for her to lean in closer. She did, anticipating his way. "We don't listen to Headmaster. Simple as that."

"But, we can't disobey him!"

"Juno, you're too good! Try breaking the rules every once in a while: it'll set you free. Besides, what'll he do to us? We'll be in the Capital, so he can't hurt us!" Janus said.

"He can hurt the others. I bet he will! I don't want to inflict pain on others purposefully!" she said, trying to convince herself that it was true, when she knew that it was far from the truth. She would love to see other's pain, but not Janus'. She hated to see him in any kind of pain. Normally though, he was to goofy to show any deep emotion like that though. So she didn't see his pain too often.

"Juno, as long he doesn't hurt either of us, we're okay. Got it?" he said. She nodded, glad to know that someone cared about her. The others at the academy were selfish or popular, so they didn't pay any attention to her, let alone care about her. She couldn't see why they would anyway: she had average looking blonde hair that only came to her shoulders, pale blue eyes like Janus', a tall and thin build, and several scars on her upper body from fighting too hard with trainers. She was average. And she absolutely hated it.

"Juno?" he said, questioning the far-off look on her face. She snapped out of her thinking and looked to him.

"Yes?" she said.

"You remember the promise we made when we were six? I'll keep that promise, okay?" he said. She smiled at the memory.

_~~Flashback~~_

_Janus sat next to Juno on the porch swing at their house. They sat watching the sunset fall behind the flat horizon. Janus held Juno's tiny hand in his, making her feel safe. _

"_Juno?" he asked, suddenly looking at her._

"_Yeah?" she replied innocently, smiling warmly._

"_Promise me we'll stick together forever, okay?" he said sweetly. "I want to go with you wherever I go!"_

"_But, Janus, if we get picked to fight…" she trailed off. She knew what the fight was, but Janus didn't. He never paid any attention at the Reaping days. He was the average six year old: short attention span, a compulsive speaker. She, on the other hand, paid very close attention to the words at the Reaping, and thought through what she was going to say before she said it. _

"_Then we'll fight together! It'll be a fun fight!" he said naively, unaware of what really happened in the Games. She didn't want to ruin his innocence though, so she didn't tell him what fighting meant. She didn't think that they would ever have to fight, so she promised him:_

"_Okay. I promise that I will stay with you. Even if we have to fight."_

_~~End Flashback~~_

"Don't ever break your promises," Juno said with a small smile. She looked up at Janus to see his solemn face. "What's wrong?"

"Mom said that a lot," he said sadly. Their mother had always been a touchy subject for the both of them since she had left them when they were seven. Then their father didn't know what to do with them since she had taken care of them, so he just sent them to the academy.

"Oh, yeah. I'm sorry, Janus," she said.

"It's fine. Let's uh…" he said slowly. Juno rolled her hand, motioning for him to continue. "I'm not sure. I mean, what can we do for four hours until the Reaping?"

"Well, since I'm too good, and I need to break the rules, why don't we just train for a while?" Juno said, a childish smile on her lips.

"There's the Juno that I know!" Janus said, and pulled her to the Training Room where they fought for three and a half more hours.

…

At one thirty, a sweaty Juno and a bruised Janus walked out of the Training Room, not even bothering to close the door. They walked to their room, dried themselves off, not even bothering to change their clothes, and walked to the center of District Two.

~~Janus' Point of View~~

After arriving in the square and being pricked by a Peacekeeper, Janus split from Juno and went to find his friends from the academy that had come to the square before him.

"Hey dude!" Xavier yelled, hitting Janus on the back after they did their hand shake. "Where's Juno?"

"She went off somewhere else. Why?" Janus asked.

"I dunno," Xavier muttered, suddenly shy. Janus shrugged it off and immediately began talking to his other friends.

"I'm glad she didn't come! She's so weird!" squealed one of Janus' friends named Olivia. If he didn't have a small crush on Olivia (or her body, was more like it) he would have stuck up for his sister. But he just ignored her. "Hey, Janus. I know you enjoyed last night!" She swayed her body from side to side, her chest pushed out. He winked calmly, and resisted the urge to jump her then and there.

Suddenly, their attention was all drawn up to the stage where their district escort Vanilla Diamond stood in a super short electric blue dress that fit her body tightly. Her forest green hair was shaped like a diamond on the top of her head. "Welcome, welcome to the Reaping for the 32nd Annual Hunger Games!" she screeched into the microphone as all of District Two broke into applause. "Here with the spiel about Panem's history, your mayor Samuel Wainston!" Mayor Wainston approached the microphone and cleared his throat. He then began his whole speech about how Panem rose from the ashes a shiny place of… yadda yadda yadda. Janus honestly could care less. He just wanted to get into the arena and fight.

"And now for our lucky lady!" Vanilla skipped over to the crystal bowl with the girl's names, then returned to the microphone with a slip of creamy white paper in hand. Just as she was about to open then paper, she dropped it, on purpose most likely, and bent down to retrieve it. When she bent down to pick it up, boy did she reveal a lot! Her low cut dress showed a lot of cleavage, making Janus' mouth water. He controlled himself though, and began thinking about last year's escort and her hideous makeup, and her plump torso and… He was back to normal again.

Vanilla straightened up. She giggled and said, "Woops! And the lady for District Two is Genev-" her word was cut off by Juno's scream. "I VOLUNTEER AS TRIBUTE!" She dashed up to the stage, blonde hair flying behind her.

"Okay! Don't we have a speedy one here! What's your name sweetie?" Vanilla asked sweetly.

"Juno Stone."

"Okay. Here we have our female competitor for the Hunger Games this year. Now for the boys…" she strutted over to the bowl with boy's names and returned with a slip of paper.

"Can I get a Malco-" Once again, her word was cut off with someone's scream of "I VOLUNTEER!" but the second time it was Janus. He sprinted on stage and smiled proudly that no one else had tried to take his spot on stage. If Juno had to go into the games alone… He shuddered at the thought.

"Wow! We have some speedy ones today! What's your name?" Vanilla said cheerily.

"Janus Stone."

"Ah! I knew I saw some resemblance between you two!" she said happily. I nodded, a huge grin on my face. "Well, here you have it, District Two: your tributes for the 32nd Annual Hunger Games, Juno and Janus Stone!" she yelled as she grabbed both of their hands and put them into the air. The citizens from the district applauded mildly. Janus looked out into the audience and saw an infuriated headmaster.

Then two Peacekeepers came and took Juno and Janus into the sparkling Justice Building. The Peacekeepers separated the siblings. Janus waited in the room, admiring the cushioned velvet sofa and the beautiful chestnut wooden desks. He sat patiently until the door opened up and revealed Olivia. She ran up to him and hugged him. He stood reluctantly, unsure of what to do, but then hugged her back.

"Oh, Janus! I can't believe you volunteered! Headmaster is going to be so mad! He'll probably take it out on us back at the Academy. As long as you win, you'll be able come back and marry me! Then we'll live together in the Victor's Village!" she said in a high voice. He nodded and smiled. That would be nice to live with her…

"I will. I am going to come back for you, Liv. I will," he said. Then, he realized what those words meant. They meant that _only_ he would come back. And that Juno would not if he kept his promise to Olivia. But, if he kept his promise with Juno, both of them would have to die in order to always be together. He suddenly felt dizzy and stepped back onto the couch behind him. "Oh no… I can't believe that I didn't see this…" He took a deep breath and ran his fingers through his short hair. So that was what Juno had been talking about when they were six. _But,_ he thought, _why would she not tell me this? _

"Janus? What's wrong?" Olivia said and sat down next to him.

"I can't… I can't come back," he said. He drew in a deep breath and shuddered slightly.

"What? Why?" she asked confused. "I've seen you train Janus! You're strong enough, you can win!"

"It's not that. It's about Juno," he said sadly. He felt a small tear well up behind his left eye, but quickly wiped it away.

"Who cares about her? You can wait for somebody else to kill her! You won't have to!"

"God, Olivia! Stop being so selfish. I care about her, okay? It's not all about you! I wouldn't return just for you! She's my sister; she's all that I have left!" Janus yelled. She looked down at him with a hurt look.

"Janus! That is so…so mean! I'm not selfish! I actually like you! But you snapped at me! I'm done! Good bye! I hope you die in the arena!" she yelled as she stomped out of the room. She opened the door and slammed it behind her. Janus let out a breath that he had been holding. He sat in the silence until the door opened again. He looked up and saw an unfamiliar face. The man that greeted him had a shaggy brown beard, greasy brown hair and sad looking eyes. He held a bottle in his right hand.

"That promise you made when you were six is finally catching up to you, huh?" the man asked. He took a swig from the bottle and then came to sit next to Janus. Janus looked over at the man that was sitting next to him and suddenly recognized him: it was his father. It made sense that Janus hadn't recognized him initially. His father had grown out a ratty beard, and his skin was sagging more.

"Dad?" Janus asked cautiously. His father was the only person that knew about the promise, other than himself and Juno.

"Who else would I be?" the man replied. Janus smiled, but then remembered what their father had done to Juno and him.

"Why did you send us away?" Janus asked.

"I… I don't know. After your mother left, I fell into depression. You two didn't notice because you were only five or six. I began taking morphling to rid me of the pain. It helped, but it was so expensive. I became addicted soon though, so I had to send you away so I could afford to buy the morphling. I'm so sorry, Janus. Could you try telling June this? I just talked to her, but she shooed me out. Wouldn't listen to a word I said," his father said. He nodded sadly. He realized he really only did have one person to rely on. And he would not be able to live with her forever because one of them was going to die in the next few days. He couldn't rely on his father, because he was a morphling addict. And of course he couldn't rely on his mother because she was nowhere to be found.

"Okay," he replied simply. He realized that he didn't have much to say to his father. His father took a long drink from the bottle and offered it to Janus. Janus looked to his father, and took the bottle without a second thought. He put the foul smelling bottle to his lips and tipped it up. A warm liquid poured into his mouth. He grimaced as it passed over his tongue and burned down his throat, but he kept drinking it until the burning faded into a warm feeling spreading through his limbs. His father took the bottle from him and smiled.

"Woah there! Don't drink too much of this son!" his father scolded.

"Like it'll affect me. I'm going to die soon anyway."

"Now, son. You need to decide: is it going to be you or Juno who will return? Because I'm sure both of you are strong enough to return. So, do you want her to win, or do you want to win?"

Janus didn't even hesitate. "Her."

"Okay. So, when you're in that arena, you make sure you whatever you can to keep her alive, understand? You die for her."

"Okay," Janus said again.

"Good thing you two care for each other so much. It'll help you out in the arena. Love will always help you. Remember that, okay?" his father said. Janus nodded. His father stood up, ready to leave, but then turned around and added something. "Remember me by this, will you?" He took out a chain from his coat pocket and pressed it into Janus' palm. The Peacekeeper came in and took his father away. Janus took a closer look at the chain, and saw that there was a small charm on the chain in the shape of a dagger. He wondered where his father had acquired it, but still put it on.

The door opened again, and some of his friends from the academy came in and assured him that he would win. Their words meant nothing to him though, and the three minutes went by without him saying a single word. He only nodded his head to communicate with them. They left him alone in the room with his thoughts. Then, two Peacekeepers came in and escorted Janus to the shiny black car that would take them to the train. Juno and Janus sat silently in the back of the car. No one spoke for the entire ride.

~~Juno's Point of View~~

_He knows, _Juno thought_. He's realized the flaw in our plan._ She looks at the pained expression on Janus' face. He looked angry at her, but he also looked afraid. _He will win. He actually has people that need him, that care for him. No one likes me. They won't care if I die. I will die for him._

They got out of the car, and got on the silver train. One, if not both, of the two siblings would never see District Two again. _Goodbye District Two, a home that I never belonged to, _thought Juno sadly.

**A/N: Hey guys! I'm sooooo sorry about the lateness of this chapter! I guess the length makes up for it right? Heh, heh, no? sorry! Anyway, I guess I'll put some shoutouts here:**

**Munamana-**** Thanks for Juno and Janus!**

**Potterheaded-mockingjay-fly-on****- Thanks for the support and fun PM's!**

**vampirevampirevampire-**** Thanks for your support!**

**And thanks to everyone who has reviewed, favorited, or subscribed! You guys rock!**

**Also, thanks again to my new Beta, ****potterheaded-mockingjay-fly-on. ****But, since I am too impatient, and since she's on vacation with no intranet, this chapter is not Beta-ed. Sorry if there are any mistakes! The next chapter will be error free, I promise!**

**Also, I have heard that some of you peeps need some points, and since I'm so generous, I will put trivia! Yay! From this chapter on, I will put three questions on, but since I didn't do any last week, I'm doing six today! I will only accept answers by PM. Sorry, it's just easier to calculate timing that way. Okay, so here are the trivia rules: if you answer CORRECTLY first, you get fifteen points. Second gets ten, and third gets five. Okay! Here goes…**

**Who wrote the Hunger Games trilogy? (duh!)**

**What is the name of Satin's boy friend in chapter one?**

**What is District Nine's specialty?**

**Name four muttations from the trilogy.**

**Which ear does Katniss become deaf in from the explosion?**

**About how many inches of Katniss' hair was singed off by a fireball?**

**Okay, so there's the trivia!**

**Review if you want your tribute to live! Reviews earn sponsor points! Sponsor points buy life-saving things in the arena! Therefore, reviews save lives! You don't want anyone to die, do you! Thank you all for sticking with me through this amazingly long author's note!**


	3. District Three's Reapings

Chapter Three:

District Three's Reaping

~~Leven Aster's Point of View~~

"Leven, wake UP!" Leven's younger sister Spark yelled. Leven opened her eyes to a small red-headed girl leaning over her. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and sat up, her little sister moving out of the way. "Wow, that was way more effective than I thought it would be!"

"Well, it was better than last time…" Leven mumbled, remembering when Spark woke her up the year before on Reaping day. Spark had rubbed her socks on the carpet all the way to Leven's room and zapped her with a finger of static electricity.

"That way was so much fun!" Spark said. She had always had a great love of electricity. Her real name was Sophia, but Leven and their mother had decided early on to call her Spark, because it fit her way more than Sophia did.

"For you…" Leven stumbled out of her tangled bed covers and approached the mirror in the corner of the room. She wasn't too surprised or impressed with what she saw: long blonde hair that was always wavy, pale blue eyes that she was told she got from her father, and flawless but pale skin. When she was younger, she was ashamed of her unimpressive blue eyes, and her pale skin, but as she grew older, she began to love the things that set her apart from the rest of the brunettes in District Three. Her sister was also different looking than the rest of the district: Spark had bright red hair and beautiful emerald eyes that stood out, as compared to the average brown hair and brown eyes of the rest of the District.

Leven reached down and grabbed the hairbrush that she shared with Spark. She brought it to her head and began brushing through her thick wavy locks. She gently but effectively brushed through all of the morning's snarls and knots until her hair was smooth and silky.

"What time is it, Sparks?" Leven asked as she grabbed her favorite Reaping outfit: a simple but revealing sundress. She pulled off her plaid pajama shorts and red tank top and threw them into the clothes hamper carelessly. She slipped on her normal underclothes, then slid on the sundress. It was low cut, and trimmed with an orange silk trim on the neckline. The dress was made to look like a tunic from the Ancient Days in Greece, a majestic place that Leven read about when she was younger. She had always had her head in a book when she was younger, and had become very interested in Ancient Greece. She also slid a gold headband around her forehead.

"It's 11:15. You slept in REALLY late this time!" Spark said loudly.

"Is it really 11:15?" Leven asked, afraid of the response Spark was going to give. She had this annoying habit of always saying a rounded time and then the exact-

"Got you! It's really 11:17!" Spark threw her head back and laughed like it was the funniest thing in the world. Leven thought Spark's maturity level and what she thought to be funny made sense since she was only eleven, but she had used the same "joke" so many times, Leven was starting to wonder…

"Oh, Sparkie…." Leven said. "Are you dressed yet?"

"You didn't notice yet? It's the same dress you wore on your first Reaping! Only it's not my first Reaping, so the sentimental value decreases a little there, but whatever!" Spark frowned for only a second, but then stepped out from behind the bed, and showed off the simple yellow silk dress that Leven had worn when she was twelve. It was hard to believe that was only four years ago. Four years ago, Leven's father was still alive. Four years ago, Leven had an older brother…

"Breakfast!" their mother yelled from the kitchen, pulling Leven from her memories. _Stop thinking about that. It's done, it's already over. You can't change what's already happened,_ Leven scolded herself.

"Leven, come on!" Spark yelled, then stopped. "Leve, stop thinking about that! The past is gone." That was the first time that Leven had heard Spark be serious. And even though Spark was only seven when IT happened, she knew that Leven was thinking about it when she saw the face.

"It smells like bacon!" Leven said, cheering herself up. She didn't want Spark to think about that dark day, so she cleared her mind of all dark things, completely forgetting about the Reaping and that her name was in there four times, and skipped down the stairs with Spark's hand in hers to the smell of bacon.

~~Cres Ebyaz Point of View~~

"_Cres!" his mother called. His head snapped up to the window of her bedroom that was located on the second floor. "Cres, help us!" He couldn't figure out why they needed help until he saw the orange flames, smelled the musky and sickening scent of the toxic gray smoke. She was flailing around, freaking out._

"_How do I help you?" he yelled up to her. She couldn't hear him apparently, so he yelled again: "Mom, how can I help you?" Cres didn't want to run into the burning building, but he knew that if he wanted to save them, he would have to. She still couldn't hear him. He decided to take action. Cres knew that it was a very stupid thing, and that he would get himself killed, but he ran into the house that would no longer be a home._

_He could barely make it up the stairs. The smoke filled air combined with the searing licks of the flame made his journey upstairs excruciatingly painful, but he was determined to find his mother, father, and grandmother. His feet finally hit flat ground and he dropped to his knees. Cres crawled forward. His eyes were squinted to keep the amount of smoke in his eyes minimal. So, he was very surprised when he ran into a lump as he was crawling. He rolled the lump to reveal it and found his grandmother. She was severely burned, the skin swollen and red. There were rashes snaking up her arms, and Cres found a spot on her face that was completely burned to the bone. _

"_Ahhhhh! Grandma!" he yelled, uncovering his mouth that had previously been cpvered by a crude shirt sleeve. Suddenly, he heard a piercing scream and felt a searing, intense pain run up his back and through his left arm. He screamed and yelled in agony._

"_Oh, God! Help me! Ah-"_

"Cres, wake up. It's just a dream. You're okay," Cres' grandmother, Whip, cooed softly into his ear. His eyes fluttered open and were met with the sight of his frail grandmother.

"Oh, Grandma, you're still alive!" he said in a relieved voice. He sat up and hugged her softly, careful not to hurt her eighty-eight year old body. Even though he was fourteen, he still loved his grandmother with all of his heart and showed affection towards her.

"Don't worry, my sweet Cres. You saved me last year, remember?" she whispered into his deep black hair. His eyes filled with tears as he remembered that terrible day.

"But- but- but… I didn't save them," he whispered. "I couldn't save them…"

"Cres, you're not perfect, okay? You're not a super hero, you can't save every one. You did save me, though." Cres loked up at her through his blurry eyes, and saw her icy blue ones were sparkling.

He nodded silently. She let him go, and slowly maneuvered her way off of the creaky old bed. Cres watched her hobble to the door, and fumble to get a grip on the knob. He was tired, and did not feel like getting up, but he didn't want her going down the stairs alone. He nimbly ran to the door, and she moved to the side. Cres pushed open the door, and held it open for her. She slowly made her way out of the doorway, and he took her leathery, wrinkled hand in his. They carefully the steps down the stairs, and finally found themselves in the grimy kitchen. Ever since Cres' parents had died, Whip had been getting more forgetful, and Cres was too lazy to clean. So the house was slowly getting dirtier. And Cres had began to realize that pretty soon he would be all alone. She would be dead… gone.

"Hungry?" he asked as he rummaged through the cupboard. She nodded. All he could find was a can of dusty oats and a small bag of brown sugar.

"We'll have to wait and see how this goes…" he murmured to himself.

About a half hour later, Cres and his frail grandmother were eating mushy and oversweet oatmeal. It wasn't the best food that they had ever had, but it certainly was better than nothing.

"So, today's the Reaping," Cres said grimly.

"It is, is it?" she replied.

"Yeah. I'm in there five times now, not three. Do you think I'll get Reaped?" he asked. It hadn't really been on his mind recently, what with her deteriorating health and all. But now it felt like it was all coming down on him. Would she be able to live if he weren't there to help her? He didn't want to think about what would happen to her if he died.

"Oh, son. You can never be sure. Some say everything happens for a reason, like fate, and others just believe in random events that cannot be avoided or altered. It's all what you believe in. Your beliefs are powerful enough to change your future. It was scientifically proven a while back," she said with a smile. "Go get dressed now."

He ran upstairs and threw on his slightly fancy black dress pants and his dressy white shirt. He took a quick look in the mirror, and combed his crazy black down hair down a bit. Then he raced back downstairs to the kitchen. Cres took stole a quick glance at the old clock on the wall and it read 11:45. _Perfect timing_, he thought to himself.

"Let's go to the Reaping, Grandma," he said. She scooted out of her chair, grabbed her cane, and together they wobbled out the front door to the District Three town center.

~~Leven's Point of View~~

After a delicious meal of bacon, eggs, and waffles, a very rare and fluffy treat, Spark and Leven made their way to the brightly lit district square, passing the district's well-known power tower that had a huge LCD screen that read "Happy Hunger Games, District Three!"

Once they arrived in the town square, Leven and Spark split up, Leven to the Reaping section, and Spark to the Watcher's section. Leven got her finger pricked quickly, wincing slightly at the sharp pierce. She headed towards the sixteen year olds' section where she found her friends Circuit, Thimble, and Astrid waiting for her.

"Hey, Leve!" they all called to her. She nodded to them and smiled as she arrived.

"Looking down-to-earth as always, eh?" Astrid said. Leven grinned lopsidedly and spun around.

"Yea-" The rest of Leven's sentence was cut off by the shrill voice of their district escort, Rainestar DeFawn.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Reaping for the 32nd Annual Hunger Games! A Woop-Woop!" she said then paused, waiting for applause that never greeted her. "Nothing? Okay, that's fine! I present you, your mayor Elise Rathebone!" Mayor Elise walked up to the microphone calmly and smiled warmly.

"Welcome, citizens. I have an announcement before we begin the Reaping and the speech: a certain individual was not able to make it to our Reaping today. We have been informed that someone is currently caring for her, but that she is in a critical condition. My condolences go to her and her family," Mayor Elise said. _Oh, that poor woman!_ Leven thought.

~~Cres Point of View~~

_Oh my God! Oh no… It's her. It's Grandma!_ Cres thought. He looked out into the somber crowd of Watchers, but didn't see her leathery, wrinkled face in there. _Oh no. _

"Anyway, we must talk about our past. The Hunger Games were started as a way to show the Districts that…" Elise continued, but Cres tuned it all out. He was thinking about his grandmother. How he hoped that the ill woman was not his wonderful grandmother. Cres was staring out into space, drifting away from the world when a familiar voice brought him back.

"Cres?" Dahra, Cres' friend, asked. He snapped his head toward her and smiled. He took in her long wavy brown hair and her chocolate brown eyes, much like those of the other district citizens. But there was something about her eyes that he really liked. Maybe the way they glinted when she saw him, or the way they sparkled when she got a great idea.

"Yeah?" he asked in response.

"What's wrong? You seem a little off today."

"It's just…" He hesitated, unsure if he should tell her personal things. He decided to. "It's my grandmother. I think it was her that Elise was talking about."

"Oh, Cres!" she said. She suddenly took him into a big hug, wrapping her slender arms around him. He stood there awkwardly for a second, but hugged her back. "I'm so sorry," she whispered, and they broke apart.

"It's… It's fine," he said with a deep breath. "I just… I just don't know what I'll do when she's gone, you know?"

"I'll ask my parents if you can come live with us! Those Community Centers are just awful!" Dahra said. Cres felt a little better but not by much.

"Okay! Now for the exciting part of the Reaping ceremony: the actual Reaping!" Rainestar squealed. She strutted over to the crystal bowl on the left side, the female bowl. She reached in a grabbed a slip of paper. Rainestar came back to the microphone and read the name.

"Leven Aster!"

~~Leven's Point of View~~

_Oh my… I guess I have to go…_ Leven thought to herself. Leven's friends looked shocked and scared after her name was called. Thimble was shaking her head, but Astrid gently touched her wrist and she relaxed. Leven was confused at Thimble and Astrid's actions, but didn't spend time thinking about it. She slowly walked up to the makeshift stage and was greeted by Rainestar and the one mentor, Electrus Blade. They both smiled at her as she walked onstage. She smiled back out of politeness, not happiness. She came and stood next to Rainestar by the microphone.

"Oh! What a pretty name for such a pretty young girl!" Rainestar said. "Now for the boys…" She went to the other crystal bowl and grabbed the boys slip of paper and returned to the microphone. Her head came back and she twisted up her face. "What a strange name…" she muttered, then, louder, she said, "Cres Ebyaz!"

Leven looked out into the crowd and saw a young boy with dark black hair and fairly dark skin approach the stage. He walked up the crappy stairs and stood next to Leven. He looked up at her with dark brown eyes that were filled with tears.

"Ladies and gentlemen of District Three, I present you with the tributes for the 32nd Annual Hunger Games, Cres Ebyaz and Leven Aster!" She grabbed each of them by the wrists and thrust their wrists in the air. "You may shake hands now!" Leven looked kindly down at the fourteen year-old boy and offered her hand. He looked shocked at her friendly gesture, but returned it.

Eventually, two Peacekeepers came up the stage and took the young tributes to separate rooms in the shiny Justice Building. Leven waited in her room on the plush couch for a little bit. She took in deep breaths to keep herself calm. Her fingers entwined and untangled themselves again and again.

Finally, her mother and Spark burst into the room. Leven was overjoyed to see them. Spark threw herself into Leven's open arms. She ran her fingers through Leven's long wavy hair.

"Leve, please come back! How long will you be gone?" Spark asked, still clinging to her big sister.

"I can't necessarily give a definite answer to either of your questions, Sparkie. I can't tell you I will come back, because I have no idea if I will. I'm sorry. I also have no way of knowing how long the games will last. I'm so, so sorry," Leven said. She felt bad for being so to-the-point, but it was pretty damn hard to sugar-coat anything having to do with The Hunger Games.

"Oh. Okay," Spark said, devastated.

"Honey, this is for you," Leven's mother leaned across the table and put a bracelet into Leven's hand.

"What is it?" Leven asked.

"It's part of the wire that… lead to the accident. It gives me the feeling of being near them," she replied. Leven nodded and wrapped the bracelet around her wrist.

"Thank you guys so much. I love you so, so much. I want you to know that if I die, okay?"

They both nodded and Leven felt like what she needed to get across was across.

Two gigantic Peacekeepers came in and hauled Spark and their mother out of the room, and final goodbyes were said.

No one else visited Leven in the Justice Building, which surprised her because she thought that her friends from the Reaping would come. They had been acting a little weird at the Reaping… Leven sighed and realized that it was a fact that she was never going to see her home district again. Ever.

~~Cres' Point of View~~

Cres sat in the luxurious room, waiting for someone, anyone, to walk into it. He sat and waited, patiently at first, but then he began to realize what was going to happen to him soon. He was going to leave his home, most likely forever, and die. He started to weep and sob, the loud sound shaking the huge room. He cried until his throat hurt and until his nose was stuffed all the way. Then, finally, someone came in and saw him. Cres didn't recognize the woman who came in.

"Hello, Cres. My name is Diana, and I'm a representative of Caring and Sharing. I'm here to inform you of the most unfortunate thing: your grandmother Whip Ebyaz passed away today at 12:16. I'm so sorry to have to tell you this," the woman, Diana, said in a calm and soft voice. Cres sat and stared at her in disbelief. He ahd already kind of knew this was coming, but the words she spoke were certain. There was no "maybe" or "but". It was totally true. And now Cres was an orphan.

"Oh, God. I can't believe this…" he whispered into his hands.

"Cres, I know that this is hard to get by, but you will have to. If you win and return, we have you signed up for sessions with a psychologist to help you cope with your losses, alright?" Diana asked kindly. He nodded his head, and shrugged off her attempt at an awkward hug. He barely noticed that she had left him. He was an orphan now… He had nobody.

None of Cres' friends visited him either. He truly did have nobody who cared for him anymore.

**A/N: And another chapter bites the dust! If that really makes any sense… Anyway, this chapter is a lot shorter, I know, but it was WAY easier to write. Faster, smoother, and all that jazz! (wow…I make song references A LOT!) **

**Shoutouts:**

**CaptainCherryBlossom****- Thank you for your PM's and your awesome tribute: Leven!**

**The Peacekeeper****- Thank you for sending in another amazing tribute: Cres!**

**Potterheaded-mockingjay-fly-on- **** For your interesting PM convos and constant support!**

**Innocent Primrose Everdeen-**** Thank you SO, SO much for all of your reviews, conversations and tributes that are yet to come! Woohoo!**

**GleeTheaterHorseNerd-****Thank you for your reviews and conversations! (Check out her story guys: she's a really great writer:D)**

**Ummm… That's all that I can think of. I'm pretty tired right now, and I have ABSOLUTELY no idea why, but I always update at around midnight. And I'm not really that much of a night person! Weird…**

**Okay, so here are the trivia answers from last week:**

**Suzanne Collins**

**Ryan**

**Grain/Wheat**

**The rose-scented lizards (no one said those ones…), Traker-Jackers, the Wolf mutts of book one, jabberjays, and mockingjays**

**Left ear**

**About six inches**

**Great job to everybody who answered those questions! And here are this week's questions:**

**Who plays Cinna in the Hunger Games movie?**

**What is the name of the girl who spoke to Cres at the Reaping?**

**What District is Johanna Mason from?**

**Same points system again here… Easier questions I think! Just to clear up any confusion: there's only three questions here as compared to six from last time because last time I was making up for the lack of questions in chapter one. From now on, there will only be three questions, unless otherwise stated by me! **

**My friend ****Kaitlandia 101**** is making an SYOT, and she needs some tributes! Now! Go to her profile and enter a tribute! She will definitely love a review and a tribute!**

**Next update will not be until I get seven reviews guys! Okay? I want SEVEN! Is it that hard? Remember the reviews save lives lesson from last time? :D**

**Also: if you would like to, and if you have any free time, please check out my other stories, ****Unbreakable**** and ****Anything For You, Katniss****. Yay! I think this is all that I need to cover here… I will also be starting a playlist for the chapters if I don't feel lazy.**

**Read, love, and review!**


	4. District Four's Reapings

Chapter Four:

District Four's Reaping

~~Scout Deadwell's Point of View~~

Scout awoke to the sound of Jasper crying. She let out an exasperated sigh, but rolled out of bed and stumbled over to Jasper's crib in the corner of her room. She checked the wall clock that was above her shared bed. 3:37 it read. Scout groaned. That meant that the Reaping was only eight and a half hours away. Scout had been wanting to volunteer to be in the Hunger Games since she was six. The previous year she had been Reaped, but her chance to enter the games had been stolen from her because somebody volunteered for her. Scout had been absolutely furious.

But this year, Scout was dreading the annual Reaping ceremony because she had her son, Jasper, to take care of. She knew that if she did decide to volunteer, which she was not going to do, that Jasper would be in okay hands because Scout's fiancé, Elijah, was nineteen, so he would be safe to care for Jasper. But it was not worth the risk. If she did go into the arena, the odds of surviving were not in her favor: Scout was tiny, and at four feet and eleven inches, she was just barely taller than her younger brother Cole. Cole was six.

She bent down to pick up baby Jasper, her long black hair falling like a waterfall into his face. He stopped crying for a moment, mesmerized by her soft hair. That gave her just enough time to scoop him up and bring him to her chest, rocking and swaying to calm him.

"Shh…" she cooed into his ear, slightly bouncing him up and down. "It's okay. Shhh…" Elijah awoke to the sounds that Scout was making. He gracefully approached Scout and Jasper, not wanting to scare either one. Jasper had fallen asleep to the soft and gentle sounds that his mother made for him. His face was soft and peaceful in his dreamless sleep. Scout smiled, proud that she had perfected her technique for calming him. She went back to the ancient crib, and carefully laid Jasper back down onto the soft blankets, leaning in to kiss his forehead before spinning around to return to bed. But instead of spinning to find empty air in front of her bed, she was met by Elijah. He gave her a kind smile and offered her his hand. Scout took it and followed him back to their bed.

"Thanks for getting him. You're such a great mother to him," he softly whispered into her tiny, elf-like ear.

She smiled, because he attempted to compliment her, but the comment just didn't make her feel any less tired or cranky. "The way you say that, it makes me sound old. I know you didn't mean it that way, though."

"Oh, Scout, I'm sorry," he said quietly, his eyes looking guilty. He looked down, seemingly at the bed, but Scout realized that it was not the bed he was looking at.

"Eli! Not right now," she said tiredly. She knew what he wanted. She even found herself wanting it too, wanting to lose herself in him. To feel their legs entwined, his fingers in her hair. But she knew that they couldn't, shouldn't, do that. She was too tired anyway.

"Okay. I just feel like I need it right now. I feel like I might lose you today, Scout. So, if I am going to lose you, I want you to remember me. This way. The way that we are the happiest with each other," he said, touching her cheek gently. She looked into his kind brown eyes and saw love and care in them, not lust, as she had expected to see. Scout was relieved to see that he wasn't lusting for her at that moment. It would make it easier to kiss him and not want everything, not feel hungry and passionate in that deep way.

~~Thrun Washery's Point of View~~

_BeepBeepBeep! BeepBeepBeep! _The sound of the blasting alarm clock woke Thrun from his fitful slumber. His eyes snapped open, twitching around the room for a second. His eye finally found what they were looking for: his alarm clock across the room. He squinted in the pale light to read the time glowing on the alarm clock's face: 9:16. Only three hours until the Reaping. Thrun was elated. He had been waiting his entire life for his sixth Reaping. The Reaping that he would be eighteen for. The Reaping that he would volunteer in.

Normally he would have been up at four, training. But since it was the day of the Reaping, his father had let him and his younger brothers Krono and Drepp sleep in. It felt good to get five extra hours of sleep. Thrun felt renewed and awake, ready to volunteer. He was prepared for running. If two people volunteered at once in the district, both of them would have to dash to the stage. The first one to the stage was the official tribute. He knew that he could easily outrun anyone in the district. That was not an issue. The issue was that his name was in there six times. Thrun was worried that his name would be picked and then someone would volunteer for him. Like that chick who was reaped last year, Thrun thought. The whole district knew of her want to be in the Games. Being the mayor's daughter, her thoughts and wants were spread throughout the district fairly quickly. But recently, she had totally disappeared. Thrun had noticed her absence in the training classes they'd had together. He'd always had his eye on her. She was beautiful in a dark way. Considered to be a mute to the whole district, Scout had only spoken to someone when she really liked them or when she absolutely had to talk. Thrun had admired that about the girl. Her silent beauty. But he'd know to stay away from her. She'd had a boyfriend with a known history of being violent. So he admired her from a distance.

He shook his head to clear thoughts of his old crush. There was another girl that caught his eyes nowadays. Mae. He had met Mae on the beach. His friends had seen him drooling over her, and pushed him over to her. Thrun took in all of her features: her long dark hair, her intelligent blue eyes, her high cheekbones. Even the tiny freckles that sprinkled her cheeks and nose. She smiled sweetly at him, eyes twinkling with kindness.

"Mae," she'd said, her hand out for him to shake.

"Th-th-Thrun," he'd stuttered out, earning him some snickers from his friends behind him. His cocky attitude returned and he called over his shoulder, "Oh, you guys need to shut the _hell _up!" They backed off, afraid of his wrath.

Thrun smiled, remembering Mae. Maybe he would see her again today. He was planning on going down to the beach, as that's where he'd met her. So he thought she would go there again.

"Alright, I'm headin' to the beach. See you losers at the Reaping," Thrun teased on his way out.

"Ohh! Thrun wants to go see his girlfriend!" Drepp yelled from his bed.

"She's not my girlfriend, dumb ass. I met her a week ago!" Thrun said, suddenly defensive.

"Woah, dude. You know I was just kidding, right?" Drepp called back, hands up in mock surrender.

"You better have been." Thrun narrowed his eyes to show that he was serious.

"I was!" Drepp said, starting to get scared. Everyone that knew Thrun knew of his hostile and brutal side when he was angry. So they all knew when enough was enough. But it seemed to have been getting worse and worse the older Thrun got. Anything slightly offensive or joking would set him off. Whenever Thrun's friends spoke to him, they would carefully watch what words they said, not wanting to get burnt by his rage.

Thrun dug through his drawers to find his Reaping outfit. He finally found some casual khaki shorts and a simple light blue shirt. He looked to the mirror and tousled his blonde curls around a little. Thrun never really cared about what his hair looked like. On his way out of his room, Thrun made sure to roll up the shirt sleeve a bit on his left arm so that his tattoo was showing. It was a basic tattoo of a wave pattern. He'd had the tattoo since he was eight, even though that was underage. It was a family symbol. His father had made each son get the tattoo when they turned eight. It represented strength and bravery. It was basically a sign of initiation into the Washery family: it meant that you had trained and earned your spot. Krono and Drepp also had the tattoos, but they hid them.

Thrun walked down the stairs and greeted his father. "Morning." He opened up the cabinet and pulled down a glass. Then he grabbed some orange juice from the refrigerator and poured it into his glass. Thrun gulped down the glass, and ran off out the door to the beach in hopes of spotting Mae.

_~~Time Flash: The Reaping~~_

~~Scout's Point of View~~

Scout and Elijah walked hand in hand out the door of their house, headed for the town square. They had had a family breakfast. Both of their families had shown up, uniting through their children's love. It was also the beginning of their wedding planning. Elijah had proposed to Scout a month previous, Scout had accepted, and they had appointed this day to start planning. Scout had sat tiredly at the table, nodding and agreeing with everything that was said, even if she didn't want it in her wedding. Elijah had kindly held her hand and stood up for what he knew she wanted, making her happy in her tiredness. She couldn't understand how he could run so well on so little sleep. Or coffee.

So, there they were, walking out the door, smiles plastered on their faces, happy thoughts of the wedding on their minds. Elijah was chatting merrily, his golden curls of hair bouncing. Scout was smiling, happy to be with the love of her life. She remained quiet, living up to her label: the mute daughter of the mayor.

Scout had her reason to remain the mute girl. The people of the district all thought that she believed that she was too good to speak to certain people, as it was known that she would speak only to her family and fiancé. But, it wasn't that. Scout had a secret, and she refused to speak too often, afraid that the secret would slip from her mouth.

Scout was sadistic.

She would never want anyone to know it though, because it would mean that she was insane, basically. And she admitted that to herself. She was fine with knowing that she may be insane. Scout had seen many tributes on the Hunger Games that were sadistic. And a few had even won. That was her inspiration for wanting to volunteer to be in the Hunger Games. Her sadism.

Scout had learned of her "issue" when she was twelve. She had been in her private training room fighting with her trainer. The man had kicked her down, and slashed a knife from inside his coat. The world slowed for a moment, and Scout had seen a vision. In her mind, she saw the trainer in her position, and she was standing over him, a dagger in her hand. She could see herself grinning in the vision, the dagger slowly getting dangerously close to the man's throat.

"Please, please Scout! Don't do it!" he'd screamed. But Scout continued lowering the knife to his neck until it was touching the skin. She'd felt pure joy in that moment of the vision. She'd felt exhilarated. The adrenaline pumped through her as she dug the dagger's blade into his fleshy neck. The blood had come immediately in the vision, flowing and flowing and flowing like a river of blood. He hadn't even screamed, hadn't recognized the quick pain that she brought down on him.

She'd pulled the dagger out and watched the blood drip off the sharp tip. Scout bent down and felt the blood run through her fingers and the grin that was on her face grew even wider. The blood was…reassuring, somehow.

Then Scout had snapped out her vision. It must have lasted only a second, because the trainer was still standing over her, in the exact same position as before.

"Come on Scout! You must have let me win that one. I know you're better than that," the man said, shaking his head. He retreated from her body and left to get some water. Scout was immensely confused and scared, yet she was strangely excited. That vision had begun her sadism, her insanity. Later on that year, after seeing a tribute that was sadistic on the Hunger Games, Scout realized her issue, and welcomed it. But from the vision on, Scout had begun to be a mute, afraid of spilling her secrets.

"Scout, honey? Are you listening?" Elijah asked, a worried look on his face. She nodded, a bit dazed after being pulled from her flashback.

She hadn't even told Elijah her secret. She was worried that if she did tell him, he would leave her, and bring Jasper with him. So she stayed quiet around him too, keeping her sadistic thoughts at bay.

"Ah, here we are! I'll see you soon, Scout! Love you," Elijah said. He brought her hand to his mouth and kissed it. She smiled fondly and went up on her tip-toes, and kissed him on the lips. A short and sweet peck.

"Bye," she whispered. Scout continued on to get her finger pricked, wincing a bit at the sharp sting. She found her way to the seventeen year-old section and found her spot in the middle of the crowd. People around her looked shocked, as it was the first time since the last Reaping, when she was pregnant with Jasper, but she didn't know then.

When her father had found out that she was pregnant, and still a teenager, he freaked out, and tried to hide her from the rest of the community. She had been locked in her house, hidden from her friends and the rest of the citizens of the district.

So it was only natural that the people around her were staring at her. She tried to pretend that she didn't notice, but the straight out gawks of people she didn't even know was hard not to notice.

"You're the mayor's daughter," someone next to her said, not even posing it as a question. "Wait, never mind that. You're a mute."

The comment didn't surprise Scout. It was well known throughout the district that she was a "mute" and that she was the mayor's daughter. She brushed him off and looked straight. Scout took a deep breath and let her sadist inside out. In her mind, the guy who had just made the comment was dying at her hands. His screams like music to her ears, his blood like life granting water to her.

She smiled as the images of his death played through her mind. She definitely wouldn't mind killing him in the arena if she ended up going there. Which, now that she had felt the rush of being her sadist self, wouldn't be as bad as it seemed. If only she didn't have so much to lose…

~~Thrun's Point of View~~

Thrun's mind was still spinning, his heart was still thumping fast, he was still seeing fireworks. He'd found Mae on the beach all right. And apparently, she'd returned there in hopes of seeing him again, too. Thrun had been walking down the shore, hands stuffed in his pockets, shoes kicked off, when he'd glimpsed Mae. The beautiful golden-brown hair, bronze skin, sea green eyes that were so similar to his. She had looked elated to see him again, and he was too. They'd greeted each other formally, shaking each other's hands and saying hello.

"Wow, your eyes!" Mae had exclaimed after looking closely at his handsome face. "They look just like mine! That's crazy."

"It is one of our district's featured traits, right?" Thrun said, starting to warm up to her. Being this close to her was driving him crazy. He decided that he needed to kick it up. "And kissing is too, am I right?" he said with a cocky grin. Mae rolled her eyes, but gave in to him. They both leaned forward and their lips met softly at first, both being cautious with their new friend.

But then both of them seemed to get used to the other one, so Thrun deepened the kiss. He put one of his hands on her hip and the other a bit further, around her lower back. With his hands he pulled her closer to his body. Beneath the kiss, Thrun could feel Mae smile. He smiled too.

Thrun had never been this close to a girl before. He'd never even had a girlfriend. He had to take girl advice from his brother Krono who was fifteen. This deeply embarrassed Thrun. Krono had taught Thrun how to kiss a girl and make her want more. Thrun vaguely remembered those lessons as he kissed Mae.

Suddenly, Thrun's lungs were burning, and he realized that he hadn't taken a breath since the kiss started. He pulled back reluctantly. Mae looked up at him, disappointment painted onto her beautiful face.

"We live in the water district, and you can't even hold your breath long enough for a kiss? I kind of want to see you go into water if you can't hold your breath that long," Mae said with a smirk. Thrun's eyes flashed anger and he used everything he had in him to resist punching her in the face. He had been breathing heavily, from his suppressed anger and the long kiss.

"Thrun, chill. I was kidding," Mae said, not even afraid of his anger. Probably because she hadn't known about his wrath. And Thrun was glad that she didn't know. Maybe he could start new with her, she wouldn't have to know of his anger issues.

"Aright," Thrun said, taking a deep breath, calming himself. "You are a pretty good kisser."

"I get that a lot," Mae shot back, a smirk on her lips again.

"Oh…" Thrun said sadly. He was just a quick kiss, someone on the side. The closest pair of lips to her when she needed them. Disposable. He wasn't important to her. And though Thrun had only seen Mae twice, he still felt like they had something. Maybe he was just desperate to be with someone.

But then his sadness quickly turned into anger. This was an anger that he could've talked himself out of. This was a get-out-of-my-way-or-I'm-going-to-kill-you anger.

"I see how you are!" he yelled. "Just kiss the nearest pair of lips whenever you feel like it? Not considering what the other person was thinking? What if that person liked you? What if you were all that that person could think about? But no! Other's feelings don't matter to you, apparently. I'm done with you." Even though they hadn't really had anything with each other, Thrun had added the last part for dramatic effect. "I can't believe y-"

And she kissed him. Probably to shut him up, but still, the fact that _she_ had kissed _him_ was still amazing. Thrun's brain shorted out, shocked out of his rage, surprised that he had been cut off.

This kiss didn't start like the other one did. It wasn't shy and sweet. It was passionate and heated. And Thrun liked it. He was shocked to find that he wasn't in control in the kiss. Mae had started everything, she'd made it hot. Thrun felt like he had been zapped by a battery in each place that her touch lingered. The kiss was amazing.

Mae had started moving her hips to him, her kisses seemingly becoming desperate. She was kissing him hard, sometimes missing his mouth. Thrun had never felt like this before. The wanting, the longing of something more. He loved it.

"And what if-" she panted beneath kisses, "that girl-" another pant, "felt the exact-" a pant, "same way?"

Thrun stopped for a moment, shocked into stillness. She felt the same way? It was impossible. Mae stopped too.

"You-you…You feel the same way?" Thrun stuttered. She smiled a lop-sided grin, and nodded.

"Exactly the same way."

"Thrun? Hello?" Mae asked, waving her perfect hand in front of him, pulling him from the amazing memory. "Mayor Deadwell is coming on stage now."

"Okay," Thrun grumbled, putting his arm around Mae's shoulders.

"Citizens of District Four, I welcome you to the Reaping for the 32nd Annual Hunger Games!" Mayor Deadwell said, pumping his fists in the air. The audience cheered back excitedly, anticipation in the air. People were only excited for the Reaping part, not the speech. "Now I am obligated to give you guys the speech, so here goes." He cleared his throat and began. Thrun and Mae had heard it many times before, so they quietly flirted with each other among the other sort of hushed voices of people in the crowd.

"-and thus the Hunger Games were created. Okay, now for the exciting stuff! I welcome our District Escort, Rainshadow Crest, to the stage for the Reaping!" the mayor finished. The crowd applauded and there were a few whistles heard as Rainshadow walked up onto the stage. She had on a short white dress with tiny black diamonds sewn into it, giving it the appearance of rain on a white backdrop. Her hair was black and was out flowing by her shoulders. She was one of the more modest looking escorts that the district had had.

"Hey. I'm just going to choose the name," Rainshadow said quietly. She wasn't like the exciting escort that they'd had the year before. Rainshadow seemed more laid back and calm, not squeaky and over-excited. It was refreshing to Thrun.

~~Scout's Point of View~~

Scout eyes followed the escort as she walked over to the bowl with the girl's names. This new escort was not as shallow as the other escorts she had seen were. She seemed down to earth almost, with no altercations or no dyed hair. Scout was glad to see some normalcy that year.

"And the girl is…" Rainshadow reached into the bowl then came back to the microphone, slip of paper in hand. "Scout Deadwell."

_What? I was Reaped last year! How was I Reaped again? Maybe someone will volunteer again…_ Scout thought hurriedly.

_Well, I guess it would be fine to go to the games. Think about it,_ one part of Scout's brain said.

**NO! You have a son and a fiancé! Keep up the hope, and you will have a volunteer. Stay and wait to see,** the other part of her brain reasoned.

_The blood,_ one side said invitingly.

**Your son! Your family, **the other side yelled.

"Is there a Scout Deadwell out there?" Rainshadow asked. Scout miserably walked up to the stage, slowly so that if anybody wanted to volunteer, they would have time.

~~Mae's Point of View~~

Mae watched the short girl slowly approach the stage. She was just glad that she wasn't Reaped so that she could have more time with Thrun. Any other time, Mae would have volunteered. She had been training for her entire life, and that was her last year of eligibility. But, there were two reasons as to why Mae didn't volunteer when she heard the name. The first, that she now had Thrun to live for. To be with. She hoped that they would share many more kisses like the one on the beach that morning. And the second, was that it was well known throughout the district that Scout had wanted to go to the games. So everyone let the mayor's daughter get what she wanted.

~~Thrun's Point of View~~

"Ah, here we are. Any volunteers for the lovely Scout Deadwell? Does anybody volunteer? No? Alright, now the boys." Rainshadow walked back to the bowls again and drew out a name. She returned to the stage, ripped the tape off of the paper, unfolded the square of paper, and read the name. "Quinn Arit-" Rainshadow was cut off by Thrun's yell.

"I volunteer as tribute! I VOLUNTEER!" Just as Thrun yelled it, he heard another voice chime in with his, and then the race was on. Thrun started sprinting to the stage, pushing people aside. Since the other guy who had yelled was also eighteen, the people in the crowd would part for who they wanted to win, and stand in front of who they didn't want to go. A lot of people knew Thrun and his bad side, so they all parted way for him, leaving him a completely open path while the other guy was struggling to push past the crowd. In no time, Thrun had reached the stage, panting from the long sprint. He jogged up the steps to the stage.

"I win," he said with a cocky grin that made half of the district girls' hearts melt.

"And your name is," Rainshadow said lamely, looking pointedly at Thrun.

"Thrun. Thrun Washery." From behind him, he could hear some of the past Victors whispering about him. Like he cared.

"Weird name. Whatever. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you your tributes from District Four, for the 32nd Annual Hunger Games, Thrun Washery and Scout Deadwell!" Rainshadow said, holding both of the tribute's fists in the air. There was a cry from somewhere in the crowd. A male cry. Thrun snorted. What a pussy. Probably the chick's boyfriend- The chick… Then it hit Thrun. He was with his first love, Scout. She was going into the arena, most likely going to die. At that moment, Thrun made a pact with himself that he would do everything in his power to keep Scout alive in the arena.

~~Scout's Point of View~~

Scout looked up at her competitor, sizing him up. He was tall, and huge. He must have been 190 pounds, and 6'2". He had sandy blonde hair and beautiful sea green eyes. He looked a little bit like Elijah, but he was much bigger, and his eyes didn't sparkle or light up.

Then she recognized who it was. He had been vaguely familiar, the name, the eyes. It was Thrun, who she had training class with a while back. He had always looked at her with puppy eyes. As if he'd liked her. But she knew that wasn't true. Scout had been a tiny thing, short and skinny. No one would have liked her back then.

A Peacekeeper snapped her out of her memories of that class by grabbing her wrist and taking her off of the stage back to the marble Justice Building. He opened the door and took her down some halls, twisting and turning until he found the room she was supposed to visit her family in. He opened the room door and shoved her in. She quietly walked around the room, taking in the new surroundings. There was a huge bookshelf with old books in the back corner, two plush blue couches in the center of the room facing each other, a coffee table between the couches, an old and dusty fire place, and two long windows on either side of the bookshelf, each window with old musty silver curtains. Scout turned back around to sit on one of the couches and she noticed that the Peacekeeper hadn't left.

Suddenly, Scout had a vision of the man in a pool of his own blood, and she was standing next to him, a trident glistening with his blood. She was smiling, proud of the rush of adrenaline from her kill. Scout shook her head to clear her mind of the bloody image. She didn't need her sadist side for a little while.

"Why are you still here?" Scout whispered, afraid of saying something that would reveal her secret.

"For you. You're looking awful sexy today," the Peacekeeper said, taking his helmet off. The man was quite young, twenty-one at the oldest, with long brown hair and blue eyes. He had a kind face, and Scout admitted to herself that he was cute.

Scout looked down at what she was wearing and thought that he was right. She had on a white corset dress that was tight on the bodice, and then flowing and loose from the hip to the knee. She also had on navy blue pumps, giving her a few more inches, but she was still one of the shortest seventeen year olds in the district. Her mother Allison had twirled her long black hair up into a beehive bun and left some curled hair out to frame her face. She also had a little bit of navy blue eye shadow on with mascara and eyeliner to make her bright blue eyes pop out. She sure felt sexy.

"You shouldn't be here," she said, a bit louder than a whisper, but it wasn't quite as loud as normal speech was.

"And why is that, sweetheart?" he asked, coming closer to her. Scout backed away from him, afraid of what he might do to her.

"I'm only seventeen. I'm a minor. And because I have a fiancé, too," she said still backing away from the creep.

"You think I care about all that?" he said, so close to her that she could smell the alcohol on his breath. It made her sick. Then, he lunged at her, and pinned her to the wall by the window. "Because I sure as hell don't!" The man leaned in and started forcefully kissing Scout. Scout was panicking. The man was all over her. He was much bigger than her, so she couldn't hope to escape using force.

Scout once again saw the man in the pool of blood, and this time she really wanted him there. She pushed him off of her with all of her strength, and he stumbled backwards unexpectedly. She followed him off of the wall, sadistic anger boiling up inside of her.

"You dirty son of a bitch," she whispered, turning around to grab a fire poker from the fireplace behind her.

"Woah, hon'! You-you don't need to stab me!" the Peacekeeper yelled. "Help, someone help me!" He scrambled over to the door. Scout sprinted to him, just pretending that this was one of her old training sessions, not her about to kill someone. Scout felt a surge of adrenaline, a rush. She lunged at him, as if fencing with her coach. But instead of her "sword" hitting another sword, her fire poker hit flesh. The Peacekeeper screamed loudly, and Scout could just barely hear the squeak of men running down the halls. Which meant that she had to move quickly. The Peacekeeper was curled up on his side on the ground. The blood surrounding him wasn't as big as the pool Scout had imagined, not nearly, but Scout was still satisfied with what she saw. She quickly put the fire poker in his hand and then curled up on the couch and cried, as if he had attacked her and she had used self defense against him.

The heavy oak doors slammed open and three Peacekeepers rushed in. Scout looked up, her makeup smeared from her fake crying, and saw that the Peacekeepers looked very confused. She inwardly laughed at their stupid faces, not putting it all together.

One of the Peacekeepers spotted Scout and ran to her side. "What did this man do? What happened here?"

"He was trying to kiss me, and I didn't want to, you know, and then he-he grabbed the fire poker there and was trying to attack me, see, and I really hadn't wanted to kiss him, so he was mad," Scout hiccupped, but continued, "and he…he was trying to poke me with it. Like trying to stab me! So I used my special defense skills to switch the positions of us, right? So then I took the fire poker and was trying to herd him out of here peacefully, but then he lunged at me. Right into the fire poker! I was so shocked at what was happening, that I curled up on the couch and was trying to forget the _awful_ thing that I had done. I'm so, so sorry!" Scout sobbed, committing to the show she was putting on. That was the most words she had said at once since she was twelve. The amount shocked the Peacekeepers who had also known her to be a mute girl. They stood looking shocked for a moment, then went to action.

"I can't believe he would do such a thing!" one of the Peacekeepers said to his friend. The friend shook his head disdainfully and lifted the man who had attacked Scout's body up. The other Peacekeepers helped him take the man out the door.

"I'm so very sorry about this, Miss. He'll be punished immediately," the shortest Peacekeeper said on the way out. Scout nodded and waited for her family and fiancé to come in.

About three minutes later, Scout was greeted by her family. Her mother Allison, her father Damon, and her brother Cole all came in looking sad and pale. Cole came over to the couch that Scout was sitting in and sat on her lap. Allison and Damon went and sat on the couch opposite of Scout and Cole's. There was silence for a moment.

"Is it true that that Peacekeeper tried to kiss you?" Damon asked, a worried look on his face. Scout shook her head sadly. "Well, I'll have that man fired soon here, alright honey?" Scout nodded again, bringing Cole closer to her. "I'm glad that you used your training on him. Good job." She smiled through her tears at her father who was supportive of her no matter what she had done.

"Scout, you'll come back, won't you?" Cole asked innocently, his big blue eyes begging her for the right answer.

"Yeah," she said simply. He smiled up at her, a few teeth missing from his mouth. Then he wrapped his skinny arms around her neck and hugged her tightly. "I'll sure try, Cole," she whispered to him as they embraced. Allison and Damon came over to the two and hugged them too, making it a family hug. They all remained silent, memorizing the feel of each other's bodies in case none of them saw each other again.

"Alright, miss your time with family is up!" a Peacekeeper came in and shouted. They all unlatched from the group hug and left.

"I love you guys," Scout whispered as they left. Cole turned back and pleaded with his eyes for her to come back. Scout nodded and smiled, and he turned back around and left. Scout wasn't as sad as she should've been. She knew that she would win. Her sadism would help her kill, would lessen the mental scarring killing someone brings on.

The door opened again, and Scout's head snapped up immediately. It was Elijah, holding Jasper. She sprang up off of the couch and ran to them. Scout took Jasper into her arms and then gently hugged Elijah for a minute.

"I love you. Elijah Hollian, I love you so, so much," Scout whispered, tears slipping down her cheeks. "I don't want to die. I really, really don't want to die!"

"I know, honey. I don't want you to die, either. You have had training right? You could survive in there long enough, I know it," Elijah said, a kind and sad smile on his lips. He offered his hand and led her to the couches. She sat down next to him and put Jasper down on his back on the other couch. Scout scooted over so that she was sitting on Elijah's lap. She wrapped her arms around his neck. He put his arms around her back and pulled her in closer. Scout was crying at that point. What if she did die? She would never feel his arms around her, would never hear him whisper reassuring words in the night, would never see him holding Jasper in the morning.

"Elijah, I love you. I really, really love you, and I don't want to die, and leave you. I really don't want to die," Scout sobbed into his shoulder.

"I know, baby. I love you, and I know that you won't die. Really, I know that you will live," Elijah reassured her.

"But-but-but w-w-what if I don't?" Scout whispered, stuttering.

"You will," he said kindly.

"Okay."

"Eli?" Scout asked, looking up at him.

"Yes?" he replied as he combed his fingers through the hair that she had taken out of her bun.

"I have a secret to tell you," she whispered, nervous and excited to tell him.

"Alright. And you haven't already told me it?" he asked.

"No."

"You can tell me it, it's fine, Scout."

"Well, I'm sad-" Scout's confession was stopped by a Peacekeeper's yell.

"Your time's up! Get out, son." Elijah got up, put Scout down and went over to pick up Jasper.

"Scout, that's not a secret. I'm sad too. But I know that you will live, alright?" Elijah said, making his way out of the room.

"Wait!" she said, running up to him. He turned around and waited for her to do what she needed to do. She went up on her tip-toes and kissed him softly. She pulled away, and a tear fell down her cheek. "That's not the secret," she said sadly.

Elijah was just about to ask her what her secret really was, but the Peacekeeper came in and grabbed his wrist.

"I love you guys," Scout said weakly as Elijah and Jasper were pulled away from her. The Peacekeeper yanked them out, and slammed the door shut, the sound bouncing around in Scout's head. And then there was silence. No sound at all. The silence was surrounding Scout, eating at her.

She curled up on the couch and clapped her hands over her small ears to be able to hear the screams in her head. She waited in the room for what seemed like eternity, but was really only ten minutes until the Peacekeeper came into the room and started bringing her to the car.

After a short car ride to the train station, they loaded onto the train, and then zoomed away to the Capitol, getting further and further away from their home.

**A/N: Holy schist! That was a freaking long chapter and a freaking long wait. It has been exactly one month since I updated this story. I'm so sorry, you guys! I honestly have no excuse. This summer has been really lazy, and I haven't been busy with anything. Once again, I'm really sorry.**

**Did you guys notice any similarities between Scout and Satin? *wink wink* I might see a friendship forming! Anyway, sorry that I didn't put Thrun's Justice Building in there. I was just too eager to update. **

**And, as a reward for the extremely long wait, I'm giving you all ten sponsor points! Woohoo! **

**Trivia answers:**

**1 Lenny Kravitz**

**2 Diana/Dahra (I got both answers here, and I found that I wasn't specific in the question)**

**3 Seven**

**Alright, and now the new trivia questions!**

**1 What color eyes did Annie Cresta have?**

**2 How was Johanna Mason tortured in the Capitol?**

**3 What was Thrun's tattoo of?**

**Okay, there's the trivia! **

**I'm thinking of making a playlist for this story. What do you guys think? Leave your answer in you review, and you get 5 points. If you suggest a song, you get 10 points!**

**Shout-outs:**

**Thanks to ****DarkHairedBeauty6000**** for sending in Scout! Tell me what you think about her!**

**Thanks to ****The Peacekeeper**** for sending in Thrun! Hope you like him!**

**Thanks to ****Innocent Primrose Everdeen**** for PMing me and keeping me entertained.**

**Thanks to ****vampirevampirevampire ****for pestering me to update.**

**And many others that I can't even remember right now. Thanks to everyone who reads, follows, favorites, and reviews!**

**Next update will be soon to make up for my extreme absence! Sorry bout the incredibly long wait, but at least this chapter's length makes up for it! It's fourteen pages on Microsoft Word! Woohoo!**

**Well, I have to go now, so see ya soon, and update will be soon too!**

**Bye!**


	5. District Five's Reapings

Chapter Five:

District Five's Reapings

~~Rose Delsa's Point of View~~

"Wake up, Rosie! It's already eleven! You stayed up way too late last night. Get up, get up, get up!" Rose's younger sister Kym yelled in her ear. "Breakfast is cold already! But Dad and I saved you some anyway." _Already eleven?_ Rose thought groggily. "You need to get dressed! The Reaping is at 12:00 exactly this year, so you're going to have be ready _soon_!" Kym backed away from Rose's ear and whipped the warm comforter off of Rose.

"Ah! Kym, it's freezing cold! You can't take the covers off of me in the middle of winter! Look, it's snowing outside right now!" Rose yelled in frustration at her younger sister. Kym was always doing things to annoy her older sister. Even though the girls were only one year apart – Kym was twelve and Rose was thirteen – their maturity levels were very different.

At school, Kym would always get into fights, or play pranks on the teachers. She would always end up in trouble. Rose, on the other hand, was the perfect child, barely even allowing herself to be a child. Perfect grades, perfect attitude, perfect everything. She worked so hard to stay the golden girl, to remain perfect. So she hardly ever acted out of line, living more as an adult than a child. She was mature. She was smart. She was perfect.

"That's not an excuse! _Ah, look, it's snowing!" _Kym mocked. "It snows almost every day here! You should be used to some snow by now!" Rose inwardly rolled her eyes at Kym, but remained the same on the outside. She quietly stood up and trudged over to her closet with wool-socked feet. It was quite cold in the room, Rose realized. It almost felt like there was a draft…

"Kym! Did you open the window?" Rose demanded. Well, Rose really wasn't the person to demand. So, it was more like she politely asked.

"Yes," Kym answered simply, then skipped out of the room. Rose took in a deep breath, and relaxed herself. She couldn't let that day give her a bad mood. Just because it was the Reaping day, it didn't mean that she could be rude, or mean to Kym. Rose quietly walked over to the windowsill and silently cursed at the sight. The window was wide open, so the snow that had been swirling around outside was now settled in the room, on the desk in front of the window. And on the desk was Rose's journal. And now it was soaking wet. All thanks to Kym.

Rose inwardly cursed. She clenched her fists at her sides, trying her hardest not to scream and yell. Her journal was her one prized possession. The _only_ thing she needed. Well, the journal and Kym. Even though Kym annoyed Rose to absolutely no end, life without her would be hell. In the journal, Rose wrote down lyrics and her thoughts.

Gingerly, Rose peeled open the journal. Destroyed. It was completely destroyed. The words that had once been scribbled in pen were now running and bleeding all over. Rose couldn't read the words, couldn't make sense of the blurry lines and smudges. All of those hours, racking her brain for lyrics to describe her mood. All those times when she felt a new emotion and had recorded it. All of those written down memories. All of it, gone. Destroyed.

Anger boiled inside of Rose. She clenched her fists even more, until her nails were digging painfully into her skin. She was visibly shaking, trying terribly hard to hold her anger in, like she was always taught to. Perfect girl, perfect attitude. Those words disgusted her now. She was tired of being perfect. Rose wanted to scream, to run around, to kick dirt in people's faces. She wanted to be carefree like Kym.

This realization hit her suddenly, and the fact that she hadn't realized this earlier made her even angrier. Her parents had brainwashed her into thinking that she wouldn't want to step out of line.

That was the last straw. Rose couldn't hold her anger in any more. "Kym, get your _ass_ in here, right now!" she yelled. It feels so good to swear, Rose thought. Kym walked slowly into the room, a quizzical expression on her pale face, her green eyes questioning. Kym had never heard Rose yell or swear. Oh well. There's a first for everything, right?

"What's wrong, sis?" Kym was genuinely confused. Rose had always been so sweet and loving. This new side was very different.

"You left the window open, again," Rose said through gritted teeth. "And it ruined my journal."

Kym's face went as white as sheet. The first time she'd left the window open, nothing had happened. There was no consequence. But this time was different. She had destroyed one of the only things that Rose held onto. And now she was to pay for it. "Ro, listen, I'm really sorry, and I didn't mean to leave it open! I swear, it was an accident. Please, forgive me!" And then Kym started crying. Like she always did when she needed a quick escape from an issue. Teacher scolding her: tears. Father making her finish dinner: tears.

"Kym, this was the only thing that I have of mother, and the memories inside are for George. And now it's all gone. I can't forgive you that easily," Rose said, a bit less angry than before. The tears always had an effect on her. Even if Rose knew Kym's tears weren't sincere, she still felt sympathetic.

"I'm sorry!" Kym whimpered. And with that, Rose had forgotten all about her earlier rage. Seeing her sister in such a state of sadness had nearly broken Rose's heart.

"No, Kymmie, I'm sorry for yelling at you. We're all forgiven, right?" Rose said kindly, offering her arms for a hug to Kym. Kym smiled and hugged Rose back.

And then Rose was back to the perfect girl. Sweet attitude, caring sister, hidden emotions.

~~Chardon DiMarco's Point of View~~

Flip, sizzle, sizzle. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Flip, sizzle. And done. Chardon expertly slid the spatula under the golden pancake and lifted it up into the air. He plopped it down onto the pancake plate, turned the oven off, then brought the plate to the table.

"Oh, Chardon, these look yummy!" Chardon's younger sister Juilesta exclaimed. The seven year-old licked her lips, and reached over the table to get a pancake.

"They better be!" he said with a laugh. "If they took that much of our oven time of the day, they better be damn good!"

"Chardon! You have a younger sister! Please, do not use that type of language in front of her!" Chardon's mother said, shooting him a scolding look. Chardon shook it off with a smirk, and returned to the kitchen to grab some syrup.

"This syrup took a long time to tap from the tree, so we can't use too much," Chardon warned as he set the syrup container on the table next to the pancakes. "And now we can eat!"

The family dug into the food, pleasantly chatting. Though it was the day of the Reaping, Chardon wasn't really that worried about being Reaped. He always had a great outlook on things. Life was always positive, things were always the best they could possibly be. The glass was always half full.

"So, I'm confused about the big kid party," Juliesta said as soon as she finished her breakfast. The family members shifted uncomfortably in their seats. They had told Juliesta that The Hunger Games were just a party that certain big kids could go to. They didn't want to give any more details about it to her.

"Well," Chardon's mother began, "the party is a big…get together. Where all the kids from different places meet. There's food." She had given away just enough details so that she wasn't lying, but wasn't telling Juliesta everything she could be telling.

"Well, I wanna go! And will Chardon ever go to the big kid party?" Juliesta said excitedly. Chardon's mother Juliana laughed, obviously not amused.

"No, you don't really want to go. I heard the food isn't very good," Juliana said, earning a giggle from Juliesta. "Okay, now you have to get dressed for the Reap- I mean the party. Yes, the party. We're having a party after the district meeting. Now, go put on the pretty yellow dress Nana gave you." Juliesta nodded, then jumped down from her seat at the table. After the rest of the family was sure she was gone, they began to speak.

"We're going to have to tell her sooner or later," Chardon's father, Finnick, said. "When did we end up telling Chardon?"

"Well, I think he was ten. But she's a bit less mature than he was at that age, so let's say, we tell her in two years?" Juliana said. Finnick nodded, then left from the table. He was already in his work uniform: a mechanic suit. Though his work wouldn't start until the Reaping was over, he still had on his uniform because he loved to be prepared. The family had always been prepared. Natural disasters, family crisis, anything. Anything, that is, but the Hunger Games.

Chardon kissed his mother's forehead, brought his dishes to the kitchen, and headed down the hall to his bedroom. It was already 11:45. Only fifteen minutes until two people's lives would be taken away from them. Chardon had always hated the games, but never really feared being Reaped. He knew that there were other families in the district that were way poorer than his. Therefore, they had taken more tesserae out. The DiMarco's were wealthy enough that they didn't need to take any out.

After a short minute of rummaging around in his drawer, Chardon fished out what he was going to wear. He had chosen a simple yellow dress shirt and some nice black slacks. He ran his slender fingers through his light blond hair and smiled. As attractive as always. He was tall and lean, like most people in his district. Chardon had kind brown eyes and a long straight nose. In short, he was a girl's dream. Kind, attractive, not self-centered.

"Don't forget to pick up the damn flour tonight, Mom! We need it for the cake I want to make," Chardon yelled as he strolled out the door. He grabbed his coat and smirked as his mother yelled behind him, "Stop swearing so much, Chardon!"

He pulled the heavy wooden door open, and stepped out into the cold, wintery day. Snow swirled around him, nipping at his pale face. Chardon shoved his hands deep into his pockets and began walking through the brisk winter air to the district square.

After a short three minute walk, Chardon arrived in the district center. There was a make-shift stage in front of the Justice Building. Five people sat under the cover of the stage: the mayor, the district escort, and then the three Victors. Chardon continued to the check-in station, barely feeling his finger being pricked. He smiled kindly at the lady who checked him in, then went to find the fifteen-year old section. He found his place by his friends Sam and Jason.

"Hey, guys," Chardon said, high-fiving each of his friends. "It's pretty cold out here, isn't it?"

"Duh. We live in District Five. Where it snows just about day," Jason said. Chardon and Sam shook their heads at Jason's preciseness.

"Dude, it was a rhetorical question," Sam said, punching Jason's shoulder.

"Technically, a rhetorical question is one that is asked, but not asked to receive a reply. Your question was implying that you wanted a reply," Jason stated, smiling triumphantly. He was always right around those two. Sam and Chardon rolled their eyes at him.

"Jason, we know you're smarter than us, but that does not mean you have to rub it in our faces!" Sam said, shaking his brown-haired head at Jason.

"It's the one thing I'm better with than you guys are: words," Jason replied. He ran a slender hand through his bright blond hair that was so similar to Chardon's. Some people even mistook them for twins.

"True that," Chardon said. He was about to start up another conversation when the microphone was tapped and the hideous escort of the year came up on the stage. Her name was Divine Lux, and she was wearing a long gown made of fur. She had on a fur cap very similar to the ones being worn by multiple people in the audience. Her hair was died different "natural" colors to recreate the fur look. It didn't look very good with her cap and dress.

"Ah, welcome to the District Five Reaping for the 32nd Annual Hunger Games! I give you your mayor, Mr. Clamp!" Divine exclaimed. She stiffly turned in the dress, and took a seat beside one of the Victors.

"Welcome citizens. As you know, the Annual Hunger Games were started as a way to…" Mr. Clamp continued on and on. Nobody paid any attention to his speech, though. In the first years, people always listened to the speech, still searching for answers to the cruel punishment. But then everyone got used to the reasons and decided that they didn't need the boring reminder of what their ancestors had done.

~~Rose's Point of View~~

The ugly escort returned to the microphone after the mayor finished his speech. Rose was feeling more and more squeamish about being picked. _My name is only in there twice_, she assured herself. _I won't get picked._

"Okay, time for the fun! Let's begin with the ladies!" Divine said, hobbling over to the glass bowls. She reached her gloved hand into the bowl, swirled through a ton of names, and finally pulled one out. _Please not me, please not me, please not me!_ Rose was chanting in her head. Divine was holding the slip of paper in two fingers, probably very loosely, when a gigantic gust of wind came through and blew the slip from her fingers.

"Woopsies! I'll just get another one!" she exclaimed foolishly. She reached in once again, and pulled out another name, this one on the top of the names. "And the female tribute for District Five this year is… Kymberly Delsa! Come on up, Kymberly!" Rose's blood ran cold at the name. Her Kym, her baby sister was going to have to go into the Hunger Games. She would be killed. Tears pricked at Rose's eyes as she realized her choices: let her sister go into the Games, and feel forever guilty, or volunteer and die. Rose decided immediately. It was no question what she would choose…

"I volunteer! I volunteer for Kym!" Rose yelled, jumping up. Divine's gaze twitched over to where Rose was jumping.

"Oh, okay! Come on up, young lady!" Divine said warmly. She gestured to Rose to come up to the stage. Rose took in a deep breath, and started walking up to the stage. This was it. There was no turning back. Rose had just handed her life away. _But it was for a good reason_, she tried to tell herself. _I'm saving a life right now_, she told herself. But no matter how many times she told herself that, her fear got the better of her, and she broke down and cried. And she didn't care.

~~Chardon's Point of View~~

Chardon was looking at shock at the tall girl who was going up to the stage. No one ever volunteered in District Five. Ever. Chardon guessed it was the girl's sister who had been Reaped. The girl who was walking had shoulder length blonde hair and was wearing a knee-length purple dress with a white sweater on top. She was fairly pretty.

"What's your name, darling?" Divine asked, putting the microphone in the girl's face.

"Rose Delsa," the girl, Rose, replied. She looked out at the audience with wide scared eyes.

"And how old are you, Rose?" Divine asked another question, batting at the snow in her face. It was quite a sight. She looked insane.

"I'm thirteen. Almost fourteen," Rose said sweetly. Chardon was shocked. Rose looked at least fifteen because of her height.

"Wonderful, now it's time for the boys!" Divine squealed, and made her way over to the boys glass bowl of names. She reached in and quickly pulled out a name. Divine returned to the microphone and peeled the wax seal from the slip. "The male tribute for District Five this year is… Chardon DiMarco!" Chardon's jaw dropped. It…It was him. He couldn't believe it. Chardon wasn't good at that kind of thing! He was a chef, a mechanic, a friend! He was anything but a weapon wielding maniac!

Sam nudged Chardon on his side and Jason pushed him up to the stage. "Sorry, man!" Sam said. Chardon squeezed his eyes shut to relax himself, opened them, and started up towards the stage.

"Okay, here we have Chardon! Any volunteers? Anyone? No one? Okay, well, here we have our two District Five tributes, Chardon DiMarco and Rose Delsa!" Divine screeched, thrusting their right and left hands into the air.

As the Peacekeepers took Rose and Chardon off of the stage, Chardon noticed that Rose was crying. He felt so bad to see her like that, so he reached for her hand. Chardon grabbed it firmly in his, and she immediately looked up to him with sad eyes. But she also looked thankful.

And right then and there, Chardon knew that he would do anything in his power to keep that girl alive.

~~Rose's Point of View~~

Her head snapped up from her crying when she felt a warm hand in her cold one. Chardon was looking at her with kind brown eyes. _He's pretty cute_, she thought. He was smiling at her and she returned the smile, glad to have him with her right then.

The Peacekeepers turned around and told them that they each had to split to go to different rooms. And right then Chardon leaned down a bit and kissed Rose on the cheek. He straightened himself, smiled, then followed the other Peacekeeper down a different hallway. Rose could tell she was blushing. She felt her cheeks warm up as he left. Did that mean he liked her? Rose let her mind wander.

"That boy looks like he liked you." The Peacekeeper chuckled to himself, then left Rose in the room to herself. She waited for less than a minute, then her mother and sister burst into the room.

"Oh, Rosie!" her mother exclaimed, wrapping her thin arms around Rose's shoulders. "I can't believe you did that. You are so kind and brave. I love you so much. I'm so proud of you." She detached herself from Rose, and then turned around to sit on the couch across from Rose. Kym was already seated across from Rose on the couch. She was looking terribly guilty.

"Kym, it's not your fault," Rose said, trying to reassure Kym. She looked like she wanted to burst out crying.

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry, Rosie! Please forgive me!" Kym said with a trembling lip. And then she burst into tears. She jumped up off of the couch and ran to Rose. Kym curled up on the couch next to Rose and cried into her lap.

"Kym, it's not your fault! You didn't do anything. Blame the stupid wind. You never know, it could have been mean Mollie!" Rose said, trying to cheer Kym up. Rose stroked the hair by Kym's ear, a spot that always relaxed Kym when she was sad. "It's okay, you're fine. I'm not mad at you, you didn't do anything wrong. I'll come back." Rose stopped. Could she really promise that? Could she really come back? There were bound to be Careers out for little girls' blood.

Kym took in shuddering breath, starting to relax. "Really? You have to come back, Rose. You have to!" Kym said, looking hopefully at Rose with bright green eyes.

Rose bit her lip. What could she say to that? "I'll try my hardest to come back. I'll be honest: it's not going to be easy. But I can sure try my hardest," Rose said, trying not to cry. She really didn't want to break that promise. She didn't want to die.

"Okay. I love you, Ro."

"I love you too."

And those were the last words Rose said to Kym before the Games started. The Peacekeeper came into the room, and pushed Kym and their mother out. The heavy doors shut, the sound slamming around in the room.

There were no other visitors for Rose Delsa.

~~Chardon's Point of View~~

Chardon plopped down on the couch, a wave of depression washing over him. He was going to die. He was going to die. He knew he was going to. Chardon felt…empty for the first time in his life. Just empty.

"Oh, Chardon!" his mother squealed. The door opened and his mother, father, and sister rushed in. They all hugged him and tried to reassure him, but he still felt empty. He didn't even hear what his family was telling him. He couldn't stop thinking that he was going to die. Chardon actually had wanted to live life. And now it was being taken away from him.

He just sat in a daze, not caring when his friends came in to say goodbyes to him. Or when his family cried themselves out as he started to lock himself away in a shell of himself. The old, bubbly, happy Chardon was gone. He was gone.

But as the Peacekeeper came in and shoved Chardon out of the room, and he saw Rose again, he started to see the light at the tunnel. His reason for dying. It was for her. He was going to die for her.

Chardon had heard of love at first sight, but he didn't believe in it. He never thought much of it until he saw Rose that day. Who'd have known that something as awful as the Hunger Games would bring two people together?

Chardon reached for Rose's hand once again, and she took his. And they walked like that to the car. And they stayed holding hands as the car sped them away from their home district.

**A/N: Wow. I'm so sorry about that long wait again. I've been busy with soccer and theatre! But now theatre is over! So I have way more time to update! Which I will try to be doing once every week! But you guys need to review! You need to remind me that you guys like this story! I have a ton of cool ideas for the arena! I have it all planned out! And I really want to execute the plan, so I need you guys to be reading!**

**Okay, so I know this story has lost a lot of fans. Like, a lot. A bunch of you guys just stopped reading and reviewing! Every review gets you some points! And those of you who ditched your tributes (if you're reading this, you know who you are!), I hate to say it, but I think I just got some more bloodbaths… Sorry! You can still come in a sweep your tribute away from death! One review is all it takes! Please!**

**Okay, here are the trivia answers from last week:**

**1 Blue-green eyes**

**2 Doused with water then electrocuted**

**3 A wave pattern**

**Alright! I'm going to skip trivia this week because I'm too tired to research and find some trivia questions. Let me know (in a review!) if you like the trivia. Comments and suggestions are very welcome!**

**Shout-outs!**

**DarkHairedBeauty6000:**** Thanks for sending in Chardon and reviewing the last chapter! Let me know what you think!**

**Vampirevampirevampire:**** Thank you for sending in Rose and pestering me to update! You rock, and you need to tell me what you thought of Rose!**

**Innocent Primrose Everdeen:**** Thank you so much for PMing me all the time and keeping me entertained!**

**DivergentInsurgent:**** Thanks for opening up to a new friend! Thanks for entertaining me, too! **

**Really, thanks to everyone. The reviewers, the subscribers, the people who favorite! You guys all rock! You all inspire me to continue! Thanks for sticking with me through my inconsistencies! **

**So…I guess that's all for now. Once again, I'm sorry for the almost a month wait again. I will try very, very hard to update again this coming week!**

**Love you all! Good day/night!**

**Don't forget to review! I'm begging you, please review!**


	6. District Six's Reapings

Chapter Six:

District Six's Reapings

~~Frank Stallow's Point of View~~

Franklin Armstead Stallow awoke to the sound of his parents fighting. He groaned to himself. They were fighting like this every morning. At the same time every morning. Their fighting was like an alarm clock for Frank. Every day, at the same time. Except this alarm clock didn't have a snooze.

He didn't understand why they didn't just split up already. If they were fighting that often, why keep going on like that? They knew that the fighting was upsetting Frank's younger sister Lily. The anxiety in the house had risen in the past day: the parents had been fighting, Frank had tried to kill himself, and it was Reaping week. It was Lily's first year of eligibility. So naturally, the worry was extreme.

Frank knew that his parent's fighting was his fault. He'd tried to kill himself, and they'd absolutely freaked out. And then the fighting started. Frank didn't know exactly how the fighting had started, but he could tell that he was the cause.

He dragged himself from the safety of his small but loved bed. Walked drowsily to the closet. Grabbed some simple gray slacks and a long sleeved white shirt. He quietly put them on, and then he slowly walked from his room and down the tiny hallway of his family's trailer. His sister was sitting at the table silently, staring sadly at the worn and old table. She heard him limping down the hallway and her head twitched up. Frank saw tears in the corners of her small brown eyes. Her blond hair hung limply around her thin face and she looked totally defeated. Their parents looked up too. His mother had a red mark on her right cheek, and his father looked drunk. He was stumbling around when Frank walked in, but stopped when he saw his son.

Frank sat down at the table somberly. Slumped down in his chair, wishing he was invisible. Wishing he was dead. Wishing that he had succeeded in killing himself. Their fighting was his fault, and it was hurting his mother and sister. He had to find a way out. Run away, or die. Frank had no friends he could live with, no other option. And running away either resulted in being found by his parents or the authorities, or dying.

Someone finally spoke up. "So, it's the Reapin' today," Frank's mother said quietly. "It starts soon, right? What time's it, Frank?"

He looked over at the ancient wall clock and checked the time. It was eleven forty, and he knew that the Reaping started at twelve o'clock.

"'S eleven forty," he croaked. He hadn't spoken in days.

"Well, you two better be off. You look awful nice, Franklin," she said with a small smile. She gracefully crossed the kitchen and came to Frank's side. She bent down and quickly kissed his hairline, then hugged him tightly. He didn't respond. He was just a shell. Just a body, going through the motions. The world moved at full speed around him, but he didn't feel anything.

Depression had sunk deep into his bones like a cancer, and it held onto his soul like a demon's claws. He wasn't living, he was just breathing. Just a shell.

~~Amelia Skyler's Point of View~~

Right, left, duck. Up, duck, swipe, uppercut, left. Same routine. Every day. And Amelia was a Sagitarius! She needed some change in her life. But her mother insisted that they keep to the same routine every day for some certainty.

Amelia dodged all of her mother's hits. Jumping, ducking, blocking. Every day. The training was rigorous. Her mother made her diet, run, work out, and train every day. And it empowered Amelia, but it also bored her. Repetition was Amelia's most bitter enemy.

"Nice, Am. You are getting better, but you're not quite there," her mother said, turning her back and grabbing a water bottle. Amelia was infuriated; she worked so hard every day, she took it all, every day, listened intently. For nothing. All Amelia wanted was her mother's attention. Her love.

When she was just a new born, Amelia's father killed himself. With no warning, no suicide note. Nothing. He just killed himself. And her mother had just assumed that he killed himself because of her birth. It was a foolish thought, but Amelia let her mother believe it. So, when Amelia was just five years old, her mother forced her to train, and raised her to believe that the Hunger Games were a good thing. That she needed to fight and win to prove herself to the world.

And though Amelia was older, and knew more about the Hunger Games, she still wanted to prove herself and fight. After all, fighting was the only thing she was good at. She didn't do particularly well in school, she didn't have any friends. She was an outcast who seeked power.

"Mother, I will never be 'there' in your eyes. I've trained all my life, fought all my life, and all I want is some recognition. Some acceptance. But I can't find it with you. I just can't," Amelia announced angrily. Her mother, whose name was Beth, turned around immediately, shock on her face.

"Excuse me, Amelia?" she asked coldly, glaring at her daughter.

"Oh, I'm sure you heard me," Amelia retorted. She had always been a fiery person. One who always had a comeback or reply. But she had always respected her mother, so she never dared backtalk her. But since it was the day of her final Reaping, and Amelia knew that she would soon have a home in the Victor's village, she decided to do something that she had always wanted to do.

"Amelia Ann, go get dressed for the Reaping. It begins in ten minutes," Beth said, wrapping a towel around her pale neck. She opened the door, and stomped up the stairs. Amelia stood in the middle of the training room, angry. She turned to the rack that was on the far corner of the dark blue room and grabbed a meter long spear. The tip was shaped like a delicate and deadly leaf, and it was Amelia's favorite. She grazed the tip with her thin fingers, admiring its beauty. Then, in one swift motion, whirled around and whipped the spear with a flick of her strong arm in the direction of a dummy. The spear flew straight at the dummy, then ripped with full speed into the dummy's chest.

Amelia smiled. Sometimes, she liked to imagine the dummy as her mother, and she would send the spear tearing into her chest. And Amelia would feel satisfied for a bit, then it would wear off and she would be angry again.

Sighing, she took the spear from the mutilated stomach and returned it to its rack. Amelia turned the lights of The Blue Room off, and sprinted up the stairs to her bedroom. Amelia decided that she didn't have time for a shower, so she quickly combed through her long light brown hair with her fingers. She stood before her cracked mirror and stared at the reflection. A pair of blue grey eyes stared back at her, with pink cheeks sprinkled with freckles. Her hair framed her face in wavy rivulets. She thought of herself as attractive, but she didn't need romance. She was too smart and feisty for a boyfriend. Or girlfriend. Or whatever.

She reached into her wicker basket of clothes and found a pair of stylish khakis and a light orange blouse. Amelia quickly stripped her training clothes off, and threw on the clothing she found. She gently combed her hair and put it into a high ponytail. Amelia whipped the hair around a bit, then thought of an idea. She braided the ponytail tightly and tied it off. Now when she whipped her hair, the ponytail was actually like a whip. That would come in handy in the arena, if it came down to that. And Amelia knew it would. She was planning on volunteering that year.

And she knew she could win. Her mother had moved to the peaceful, predictable District Six from District Two, where her father had been training as a Peacekeeper. He was sent, with his wife, to another district, so both of them had traits of a District Two citizen. And Amelia also learned those traits from them. So her parents had begun to train her. They believed that District Six needed a Victor, and they had faith that their daughter could do it.

But then one day when Amelia was seven years old, her father committed suicide. There was no note explaining why, no apologies, nothing. He had been a very happy man, never depressed. He had never shown any of the signs. Amelia and her mother were devastated. He was the joyful one in the family. He cheered everyone up. His death caused Amelia's bitterness and her mother's quietness.

But there was always this sick feeling that there was more to her father's death. Amelia had a feeling that his death was not suicide at all: she thought that it was murder. And the prime suspect was her own mother. He was not the man that would commit suicide. And she was the only person who was close to him in the days leading up to his death.

Amelia kept her accusations to herself though. Nobody would believe a child. And besides: the case had been closed more than a decade earlier, so no one would look at it.

She brought herself back to the present. Those kind of thoughts would ruin her happy mood. Despite the ominous mood of the rest of the district, Amelia was quite excited for the Reaping. She was eighteen and it was her last year of eligibility. Amelia knew she could win. And she knew that the Career pack would accept her. She was good enough, in her own eyes. And in her mother's eyes,too.

Amelia snuck a look at their ancient wall clock: it was 11:50. And the Reaping started at twelve o'clock, so she was right on time. She grabbed an old sweater from the coat rack in their main room, kissed her mother goodbye, and left for the Reaping.

It was her day.

She was ready.

~~Frank Stallow's Point of View~~

Frank forced himself to the District Square. Lily was holding up strong and holding his hand, bringing him to the area. She parted ways with him and went to the girl's line. The man took Frank's hand and pricked his index finger, wiped the blood on a piece of paper, and shoved him away. Frank stumbled away slowly and made his way to the fourteen year old section. As he was stumbling to his section, his crutch gave out from under him, and he fell into a mud puddle. The kids around him laughed and kicked him back into the mud when he tried to get up.

This was why. These stupid kids were Frank's reason to die. They attacked him with words mercilessly. They also attacked him physically, pushed him into walls, kicked his crutches out from under him, and punched him. He would remain quiet and not tell anyone about the abuse. He decided from then on that he wouldn't talk.

And his sister would try to save him from them, but that would worsen the bullying. They teased him and told him that he needed a little girl to fend for him. But Frank just let them hurt him. He was past the point in fighting. There was no point in trying.

So that's why Frank just lay peacefully in the mud and waited until the kids left him alone. It took quite a while, but the imbeciles, as Frank saw them, eventually got bored of it and stopped.

And when Frank finally managed to get himself from the calm and kind mud, what he heard was the worst thing he could have expected: his sister's name was being called.

Frank's heart shattered and collapsed in one beat. The kids around him laughed and pushed him around.

"Aww, Poor Little Frankie's protector girl is gone now. Guess he'll have to take us on himself," a boy said with a laugh.

"Is there a Lily Stallow in the audience anywhere?" the hideous woman on stage said. She looked around in the sunlight until she saw the little girl with sad brown eyes and limp blonde hair climbing the stairs. "Ah, here we are! Hello, Lily!" Lily had reached the middle of the stage to where the woman was. "I think it's totally useless," she whispered to herself, "but do we have any volunteers for this pretty young girl?"

And to Frank's surprise - to the entire district's surprise actually – a girl's hand shot up into the air.

"I volunteer!" a pretty girl with long brown hair yelled. Frank, stood up as tall as possible, and saw that she was coming from the eighteen year old section.

"Oh-oh my word! It looks like we actually have a volunteer this year!" the escort shouted. "Ladies and gentlemen, for the first time in District Six history, we have a volunteer! Come on up here, dear!"

The girl sprinted up to the stage.

"And what is your name, young lady?"

"My name is Amelia Skyler, and I guarantee you that you are seeing your future victor for the 32nd Annual Hunger Games before you right now!" she exclaimed proudly. Frank smiled. She was a kind soul, saving a twelve-year-old's life like that. That gave Frank a bit of hope that there were still some okay people left in the world.

Lily ran off the stage after hugging the Amelia girl and thanking her.

"Okay, now we have our male tribute!" the escort, Priscilla announced happily. She bounced over to the glass bowl with names in it, and quickly snatched a slip of paper out.

"We have- oh my – Franklin Stallow! Oh dear…" Priscilla said. "Come on up, Franklin."

And, for the second time that day, Frank's world shattered.

"Frank? Frank? What's wrong?" Lily asked.

Frank's parents hadn't come to the Justice Building goodbyes, for some reason.

Frank couldn't have cared less. He didn't care about anything anymore.

He didn't hear anyone.

He didn't react.

He didn't feel.

He was gone.

Gone in himself.

~~Amelia Skyler's Point of View~~

Amelia kissed her mother goodbye as she left the Justice Building. Their goodbye was nothing special: some tears were shed, I love you's were said. Amelia truly loved her mother, but that murder thought couldn't escape her mind. It was like a poison, eating at her conscience.

She got into the car quietly, kissed her mother goodbye, and tried to reassure the poor boy that she was with.

She had seen the scars on his wrists. She knew why he was so silent.

She saw his empty face when he heard his name called.

He was gone.

Poor little boy.

**A/N: I'm sorry guys. And I know: this chapter is really short and strangely vague. I was just trying to get into their characters. Sorry.**

**Two months is too long. I know. I really am sorry. Guys, I feel awful. I am pretty sure that I have lost all readers on this story. Oh well. I guess that's my own fault. :/**

**Here are some trivia questions (not all having to do with Hunger Games):**

**1 – What is the elemental abbreviation for gold?**

**2 – Who has been casted as Finnick O'Dair in **_**Catching Fire**_**?**

**3 – Who's brother and father died in this story?**

**Okay, and, as a treat, the amounts you can earn for trivia have been doubled! So try to answer! **

**Thanks guys!**

**Sorry for my absence, I feel so bad about it. **

**Love y'all.**


	7. District Seven's Reapings

Chapter Seven:

District Seven's Reapings

~~Ava Tatum's Point of View~~

The sound of rain softly coming down on the tin rooftop awoke Ava. She sat up quietly, looking around the tiny shack. In one corner of the room lay her tiny twin sisters, Emmi and Eve, curled up next to each other. Ava smiled sadly at her peaceful little sisters. She was so afraid of having to leave them.

Ava's father had lost his job, and become an alcoholic after their mother died, leaving Ava to care for her two younger sisters and their depressed father. The reason for her sadness was that her name was in the crystal bowl 56 times since she had to take so much tesserae to keep her sisters and herself alive.

And for some awful reason, Ava just knew that she would be picked. She had a hollow feeling in her core. Eve began to stir, which caused Emmi to wake up too. They each looked at Ava with wide blue eyes and round pink cheeks. They had round cheeks because the baker of District Seven had a soft spot in his heart for the two, so he often gave Ava the extra bread. Ava of course gave all of the bread to her sisters.

"Sissy, what's wong?" Emmi asked in her cute four-year old speech. Ava came over to them and gathered them both in an embrace, patting down their blond curls.

"I just love you two so much," she said to them reassuringly. The little girls smiled up at their big sister. "Are you two hungry?" Her question was answered with eager nods. She got up and crossed the tiny room, pulling open a creaky door. She reached into the cabinet and pulled out a small loaf of bread and a tiny jar of blackberry jam that she had stolen from someone at school. She opened up the jam jar, stuck her finger in the jam straight, and licked her finger. "Yummy! You two split this while I get dressed. After all, today is the Reaping day."

"What's a weaping?" Eve asked, jam smeared all over her face.

"It's a feast that only big kids are allowed to go to," she said, dancing around the somber truth.

"Are you going to the feast? I don't want you to go, Avey," Emmi said. Ava sighed and started to pull a hairbrush through her long brown hair.

"I don't want to go either, Emmi. But I don't know if I'm going to go," she said.

"Please don't go," Eve said, her big blue eyes shining brightly, begging Ava. Ava finished combing through her long hair, letting it flow around her shoulders and down her back. Then she took off her dirty tank top and sweat pants and put on the short sleeved white blouse and silken dark blue skirt that her mother had left behind for Ava's seventeenth birthday and Reaping. Ava pulled on her heavy old rain-jacket and her hiking boots. Then she came over to her two younger sisters, frowning when she saw them. What would she do with them while she went to the Reaping? Their father had left the house in a rage the night before, and hadn't returned yet. She couldn't take them to the Reapings and leave them alone in a gigantic crowd. But she couldn't leave them at home, because every citizen was required to attend the Reapings unless on their death-bed.

"What am I to do with you two?" she said under her breath. Just then, there was a knock on the door. Ava went to answer it, and was greeted by the welcoming face of the baker.

"Mr. Aldjoy! What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Ava! Your father… After he left you last night, he… I'll just get to the point: we can't find your father. He has been missing for twelve hours. I can take Emmi and Eve to the Reapings for you," he said sadly. Ava stood shocked. He went missing? Would he be in the forest? Did they even look for him?

"Oh-oh. Okay," she said quietly. "Em, Eve, Mr. Aldjoy is here to take you to the Reapings. As soon as it's over, you can come back to me, okay?"

They looked at her with scared expressions, but she smiled reassuringly. The kind baker came into the house, and took each little hand in one of his massive hands. He took them out the door into the rain, and opened up an umbrella. Ava could see the little girls looking up at the device in wonder and smiled at their young curiosity.

~~Chase Jannsen's Point of View~~

Chase left the house at the same time his father did. He left for the store. His father had gone to deliver some books to a family.

So Chase just strolled over to his father's general store to have some breakfast. He opened up the shop: unlocked the doors, turned on the few light that they had, and went into the back where they kept the water jug and the bread.

The Reapings began at twelve o'clock, and it was about 11:30. He sat at the front desk of the shop and waited for his father to return. He realized after only a little while that he didn't need to open up. It was Reaping day, and all shops closed after twelve. Chase sighed. He always forgot about these things. He was quite a forgetful person.

The old cowbell that had been attached to the front door jingled, and Chase's head shot straight up.

He would recognize that face anywhere. It was Ava. He wondered why she was there so close to the time of the Reaping. And why she was there at all. Chase knew that Ava was quite poor, and, though his father would never admit it, the goods were pretty expensive and over-priced.

"Hey, Ava, what are you doing here?" Chase asked nonchalantly.

She twirled her hair around her finger. Ava didn't look up from what she was looking at. She mumbled, "I have a bit of money. I need something. Put it together."

Wow. Chase had never really interacted with Ava. He had wanted to, but he just had not. So he had no clue that she was feisty like that. He kind of liked it, but that sounded weird to him, so let that thought leave him.

"What exactly am I putting together?" Chase asked coolly.

"Clever. What do we have here, a genius?" Ava retorted, still looking down at the trinket.

"Precisely, miss Tatum," Chase said.

Ava's head shot up. "You know my name? That's not creepy. Not at all," she said, narrowed eyes.

"We go to school together. You should know my name," Chase replied, engaged with the conversation.

"I have better things to do than to go around and learn everybody's names, okay?" Ava said, still looking at him.

"Yeah, like what?" he asked.

"Like take care of my little sisters and keep them away from the imbecile of a father that I have!" she yelled, suddenly emotional.

"Woah, Princess, calm down. I was only kidding," Chase said, wanting to comfort her. But that would be so weird if he did. She apparently didn't know him, so if he hugged her, like he wanted to, she would freak out.

"Yeah, I hear that one all the time," Ava replied bitterly. "Kidding. If you were kidding, then why did you ask in the first place?"

"I thought you were just saying that, like sarcastically," Chase said, feeling bad for invading her space. "I honestly didn't mean to hurt you."

"Whatever," she muttered. "How much for these?" Ava held up two leather bracelets that she found in the back of the store.

"The red one's three, the brown one's two. But since it's Reaping day, I'll give them to you free," Chase said, trying to redeem himself with her.

But apparently he'd done the wrong thing, because she flipped out. "I don't need your charity! What, you think because I'm nearly an orphan that I'm the District charity case? That I need your stupid handouts? I don't! I can take care of my family, thank you very much! And what, are you treating today like holiday? Like it's something to celebrate? Well, it's not! And for a second, I liked you! Forget the stupid bracelets!" Ava yelled, and then proceeded to throw the bracelets at him and hit him square in the face.

Chase sat still, in shock. She had just exploded to him and he had only said something meant to be kind. Chase was surprised: he'd heard that Ava was a sweet girl. But rumors were so warped and twisted at their school, you could never tell if they were true or not.

He waited a bit longer, stuffed the leather bracelets in his trouser pocket, and closed the shop up for the day to go to the Reaping. He strolled into the District Square and met up with his friends, Ryan and Lukas. They all got their fingers pricked and filed into the seventeen year-old section.

Lukas nudged Chase in his side. "Dude, there's that chick that you like!" Chase immediately looked up and followed Lukas' finger to Ava, who was braiding a girl's hair.

"Lukas, shut up!" Chase said, turning bright red.

"Man, you know you do like her! Stop dancing around it," Ryan said, watching Ava too. "She is pretty good-looking, you've got to admit."

"Yeah-no-I guess, maybe. Ah, come on! Ryan, you always do that!" Chase exclaimed, growing more and more frustrated by the second.

Ryan and Lukas high-fived and laughed as Chase ducked down when the girl with her braided hair pointed at Chase and said something to Ava.

Ava narrowed her eyes again, and said something back to the girl, who then laughed. Ryan and Lukas punched Chase in the shoulder.

"Bro, it's war!" they said to him.

~~Ava's Point of View~~

Alexis nudged Ava. "They're saying something again!" she yelled.

Ava looked over at them and noticed the brown haired boy from the general store. Why was he still looking at her?

"That boy is so creepy. He won't stop staring at me," Ava said to Lexi. The boy blushed under Ava's gaze and she rolled her eyes.

"Ava! That's _Chase Freaking Ryder!_ And he's into you!" Alexis said his name as if he was a god.

"And that's significant because…" Ava drawled, motioning her hand for Lexi to continue her thought.

"Because he's himself! And he's _so hot!"_ she squealed to Ava.

"Well I think he's a stalker," Ava said.

"He's stalking you! That's so awesome!" Lexi exclaimed.

Their whole conversation had been going on while the mayor droned on and on about the Treaty of Treason and why the Hunger Games exist and why all of the things that are are in place. And the whole conversation consisted of the group of weird boys stealing glances at Ava and Lexi, and them gossiping about the boys.

After quite a long repetition of this, the mayor backed off stage and allowed the hideous escort Polyrose to take over the microphone.

"Oh here we go again with her," Ava whispered.

"I think she looks good this year!" Lexi said, taking in the escort's outfit.

"Jesus, Lexi," Ava mumbled.

"Hello! Hello, and welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the District Seven Reaping of the Thirty-Second Annual Hunger Games! Brought to you by none other than myself! The magnificent Polyrose! Now, we must begin, as always, with the reaping of the lovely young ladies!" Polyrose yelled.

She strode over to the glass bowl with names of hundreds of girls, and expertly extracted one slip of paper with a name on it.

Ava's stomach knotted and twisted around in anticipation. She was so nervous, and Lexi could see that, so she grabbed her best friend's hand to console her. Ava was still anxious, but the action was sweet on Lexi's part.

"May I have Miss Ava Tautum come up on this stage?" Polyrose asked in a sickly sweet way.

Ava froze.

And

She

Fell

Off

A

Cliff.

She had just been Reaped. She was going to die.

Where would her sisters go? To Mr. Aldjoy? He was kind, but would he take on two little girls, two extra mouths to feed?

No one would in this district.

Ava was in shock until Lexi pushed her forward.

"Lexi! What the hell?" Ava said.

"You know how strict these Peacekeepers are! Get up there or they'll shoot us both!" Lexi pushed her again.

She had a twisted logic, but Ava did as told and went forward.

~~Chase's Point of View~~

Chase stood devastated as he saw the girl he pretty much loved go upstage to meet her ultimate death. His heart just shattered when he saw the look of utter horror on her beautiful face. He found himself wanting to console and hug her again. He promised to himself that he would go visit her in the Justice Building.

"Lovely, dear! Now, would you like to pick the boy's name?" Polyrose asked.

"Never. I would absolutely hate to ever do that for you disgusting people!" she spit out at the woman.

"Well, alrighty then!" Polyrose said in exclamation as she waddled over to the second glass bowl with boys' names. "And our lucky male tribute is…" She pulled the seal off of the slip and read, "Chase Ryder. Come on up, sweetheart."

Chase's world was turned upside down in that instant.

The girl he loved was going to die, and he was too.

But Chase went up. He went up, even though those would be his last free steps. He went up even though his world was done.

"Wonderful!" Polyrose squealed. "Ladies and gentlemen, may I present you with your future tributes of the Thirty –Second Annual Hunger Games, Chase Ryder and Ava Tatum!"

No one cheered or clapped. In fact, they began to file out and away, seeming not to even acknowledge the fact that two innocent teenagers were going to die.

Chase grabbed Ava's hand in a moment of courage, and gently gave her the leather bracelets that he had been holding during the Reaping.

"Please, Ava, take these," he pleaded quietly as Polyrose escorted them to their rooms in the Justice Building.

She took them and left Chase.

He smiled.

~~Ava's Point of View~~

Ava was crying as Emmi and Eve were led into the room.

"Ava? What's wong?" Eve asked as she climbed onto Ava. Emmi followed suit and Ava had two little girls sitting in her lap, playing with her hair.

"I'm going to be gone for a long, long time," Ava said through tears. Emmi's tiny little hand reached up and wiped away one of her older sister's tears. Ava's heart just broke at the sister's gesture. She tried to smile, but the situation before her seemed so bleak that she just could not bring herself to try to be happy.

"Where?" Emmi said, concern in her shining blue eyes. "Are you weaving us?"

"Only for a little bit, I hope," Ava stuttered. She sniffed half-heartedly and just brought her sisters close, hugging them since that would be the last time she could. "I love you two so, so much. Remember that when I go away, okay?"

"Of couwse!" Emmi said. She hugged her sister's neck and buried her head in Ava's neck. Eve did the same, and Ava held them to her tightly, wanting to never let go.

"Ma'am, your time is up," a Peacekeeper said to them. The little girls refused to let go. Ava tried to get them off, but they just started to cry.

"Sissy! Where are you going?" they cried to her. Ava cried harder, but she didn't reply. The man pulled them off of her.

The little girls cried as they were forcefully dragged out of the room.

Later, Ava found out that her father's body had been found in the creek on the other side of the district.

She didn't cry too much.

~~Chase's Point of View~~

Chase's family came and went, everyone shed a tear. Chase's friends came and visited him too, wishing him luck in the arena as well as with the girl. They told him to protect her. He smiled through his tears and told them that they were the best friends.

Polyrose and the one mentor that they had piled into a tiny black with Chase and Ava car that whizzed to the deserted train station on the far side of the district. Chase held onto Ava's clammy hand the whole time.

And she never let go.

**A/N: WOOHOO! I've posted another chapter guys! Awesomeness! Alright, so I'm going to be writing pretty short Reaping chapters from now on, because I really want to get the alliances started, and the Games too!**

**Okay, not too many people got the trivia from last week right. But here are the answers:**

**1 : Au**

**2 : Sam Claflin**

**3 : Leven, from District Three (nobody got this one, but I guess I wasn't specific enough.)**

**And here are the new trivia questions:**

**1 : Which district were Bonnie and Twill from?**

**2 : What was Peeta's favorite color?**

**3 : What was the nickname dubbed by the soldiers of the suicide pills in Mockingjay?**

**Okay, thanks for sticking with me, guys! I only have seven chapters, and nearly fifty reviews! That's awesome. So thank you all so much!**

**Thanks for reviewing and staying with me through this! Please leave me your thoughts!**

**Chase was created by ****Kaitlandia101,**** so a big thanks goes out to her! And I created Ava.**

**Have a good week, and I will try to update next Sunday! Thank you.**


	8. District Eight and Nine's Reaping

Chapter Eight:

**District Eight's Reaping:**

~~Katleen 'Katie' Nami's Point of View~~

Katie woke up early on the morning of the Reaping. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and laid in her bed for a while, trying to wake herself up more. She was very tired from the night before, when she had snuck out and partied at some boy's house. None of the girls there had liked her, but the boys sure did.

She had kissed that night. A lot of boys, actually. There had been drinks, and even some drugs that she had seen being shot up. She had only had some drinks, though.

And some of those boys had gotten farther than a kiss. She let them go ahead if they wanted to. All of the boys liked her for her body, but Katie didn't like any of them. No, she was above them. She didn't need anyone but herself, and she loved that. She hadn't relied on anyone since her parents had died when she was nine.

Of course that still hurt her to think about, but she wasn't really the crying type. She had run out of tears to shed at any expense. The girls didn't like her. The teachers didn't like her. She shed all of those tears long ago.

But the boys, for some reason, liked her. So she took that to her advantage and used it. Sure, they were using her for her body, and she knew that. But it was the only thing that she felt like she needed to do. The only thing that people liked her for.

The girls certainly didn't like her for it, though. They called her a whore, a slut.

Katie just convinced herself that they were jealous of her.

But she knew better.

Deep down, she knew that they were right about her.

And even deeper down, she didn't care that she was that. She felt important, and that was all that mattered.

Right?

She kept telling herself that.

Even if it wasn't true.

But she didn't let them get to her. They could all screw themselves, as far as Katie was concerned. She was perfectly happy with where she was: the Community Home, with her perfect body and beautiful black hair. Frankly, she didn't give a shit as to what those girls thought. She had herself, and that was all she needed.

~~Stitch Cobb' Point of View~~

"Come on, Stitch! Let's get them!" his best friend, Connor, yelled. The bullies ran off, snickering and laughing.

"No, it's fine," Stitch said quietly, standing up with Connor's help, and wiping the dirt from his nice Sunday clothes. He frowned. His mother would be furious with him for dirtying his clothes. She was a hardworking woman that couldn't afford to clean things often, so he would definitely hear about it when he got home.

"Damn it, Stitch!" Connor said to him, red-headed head in his hands. "You're too nice! You can't let those assholes push you around like that! You're so weak, man!"

"Well, I…" Stitch mumbled, scrambling for an excuse. None came to his mind.

"You what?" Connor demanded. "You can't stand up for yourself is what you were thinking!"

Stitch moved away from Connor. He stomped off past him, having enough of his neighbor for one day. Stitch walked on past the squeaky swing set to get to his house. He would have run, but his asthma held him back. He tried to go quickly away from Connor, but he ended up wheezing and coughing.

"Wait, man! I didn't mean it like that!" Connor called from behind him. Stitch just kept on walking away from him, the cold breeze stinging on his shaven head. His mother had shaved all of his head because of the lice that had been hiding in their room. She had even cut her own hair short, up to her ears.

He finally reached his old crooked house. He looked back, and saw that his friend was still in the same spot. Stitch turned back to the door and opened it up. He burst in, and quickly ran upstairs to his bedroom.

It was the Reaping. He was extremely nervous, and on top of that, his mother had to work, so she couldn't walk him to the Town Square, which happened to be a very far walk from their house. He could walk with Connor, but he didn't want to.

He grabbed his notebook from his tiny old desk, a dusty fountain pen that his father had given to him, and turned to his window. He undid the lock, pushed the window up, and squished his slender body through the frame, out onto the thick branch of the tall oak tree that grew next to his lopsided house. Stitch scooted back until he hit the trunk of the tree, the thick part that the branches depended on. In a way, the trunk reminded him of his mother. She had held Stitch together when his father had died. She even held Stitch together when she had her miscarriage, even though it should have been Stitch holding her together. He respected her immensely for her strength.

He sat on the branch, looking out at the neighborhood of his. Mothers kneeling down, kissing their children before sending them to their possible death. Street dogs limping around, fighting over tiny scraps from trashcans. Connor, sitting in the field of daisies that Stitch left him in.

Stitch sighed. Connor. His thoughts about that one boy were so jumbled up and weird, that he didn't know how to feel. He was trying to decide what he thought about his best friend. Did he like him more than a friend? Or was it just a brotherly love?

Stitch was ashamed of these feelings. In school he learned that it was only men and women that were allowed to love each other. At home, his mother never talked about these menial things. He had no idea what her opinion on these things were, but he only knew that he didn't want to tell her.

Or anyone, for that matter.

He couldn't decide. So he wrote exactly what he felt down in his notepad. He hoped desperately that Connor wouldn't stumble upon it, because then Connor would know. And that would be the end of life as he knew it.

What would Connor do if he found out? How would he react?

Probably negatively, Stitch thought. He knew his friend that well.

He sighed.

People started filing away from their homes, all walking out to the District Square.

Stitch climbed back to his window, and crawled into his room. Time to go.

~~Katie's Point of View~~

Katie dressed herself in loose brown pants and a tight black shirt, with her shoulder length black hair tied back.

The other kids had already started to leave for the Reaping, so she figured then was a good time to go, too. She walked out of the home and down the street and rolled her eyes at the people she thought were gawking at her. She quickly got her finger pricked, and then filed off to the sixteen year old section. Katie smiled at the people she walked by, and some, who didn't know her, smiled back.

She decided that the front was where she belonged, so she strutted up to the very front of the sixteen year old section and stood there proudly, ignoring whispers of the jealous teens around her. _Don't hate me 'cause I'm beautiful_, she thought to herself. _They're just jealous. Boys like me, and not ugly girls._

"Welcome, one and all, to the 32nd Annual Hunger Games Reaping of District Eight! I am your host, Electra Hart," said the strange man on stage. His bright red hair curled around his eyes like a mask almost, and he had purple gems embedded into his skin. Katie touched her soft cheeks, imagining what that would feel like on her own skin. She decided it would only enhance her good looks. Who didn't look good without a little sparkle?

See, Katie hadn't grown up hating the Capitol. She'd grown up with dreams of moving there someday, living in big, fancy houses with handsome men all around and people to make her food and bring her clothes, and all the special things that came with being liked. She'd actually grown up hating the rest of Panem, after having lived in the Community Home. They weren't necessarily cruel or abusive, they just ignored the kids, since the owners had their own families, and not many people wanted more children. So for as long as Katie could remember, she had basically raised herself. Of course, her older sister Amanda had taken care of her and a few other more helpless children for a few years until one day Amanda left Katie to fend for herself in District Eight. Amanda hadn't been Reaped, she'd just disappeared. And Katie began to hate nearly everything about Panem.

"As always, I'll begin with the lovely ladies of this district! May the odds be _ever_ in your favor, District Eight!" Electra Hart went to the slightly chipped glass bowl on the table behind him, and dug an elegantly gloved hand into it, slipping over the names like water over rocks, until deciding on a certain slip. He pulled it out, delicately peeling the wax seal off the folded paper.

_What if it's me? Will I get picked? _

The redhead swept his eyes over the crowd, drawing the expected reaction of hatred and suspense, before leaning forward, an ugly grin stretching across his thin face, and announced, "May I have a Miss Katleen Nami up on stage with me?"

Katie froze, her eyes wide in shock. She had been picked, she had been picked… This was real, too, there was no denying the sounds of thankful gasps around her, the pushes and shoves from relieved girls in the sea of teenagers. She dragged her feet on the stone beneath her, her confidence completely drained. Katie consciously crossed her arms over her revealing neckline on her shirt, feeling people's greedy eyes on her body, and for once, she didn't like this uninvited attention.

"My, what a lovely lady we have up here!" Electra screeched into the old microphone. People covered their eyes, a few people coughed to cover up their screams of shock at the unexpected noise, but most just shuffled along back to their parents, getting around the boys.

He draped his long, thin arm around Katie's shoulder, and she imagined a snake slithering over her. She pretended to enjoy his presence, supposing that she would eventually have to get used to his presence. But something about his red lips matching his red hair scared her as he looked down at her with a possessed hunger. She shuddered under his grasp, hoping no one noticed.

"Now for the gentlemen of the district!" Electra left Katie's side and plunged his hand into the boy's bowl, opened it right there at the bowl, and laughed out loud. People in the crowd began whispering, trying to figure out who's name sounded funny, hoping it wasn't their own. "Stitch…" he gasped between a spasm of laughter, before bringing himself to the microphone to finish. "Stitch Cobb."

~~Stitch's Point of View~~

_It's me. It's me, I've been chosen, I'm going to die and I love my best friend, who's a boy. Is that why I got picked? Because I love Connor? Oh no…_

Thoughts flooded through Stitch's mind at the second his name was called. He couldn't move or talk or anything. He had realized, in a split second, that he loved his best friend, and that he was punished because it was wrong. Should he tell his mother before he said a final goodbye? Should he tell Connor before the final goodbye? _I should,_ he decided as he slowly processed that he was to get up onstage.

Once he made it beside the glamorous (and creepy) Electra Hart, Stitch smiled feebly, trying his hardest to look at least a little relaxed, and so he joked with his name to Electra and they made fun of each other.

After being escorted to the deep center of the Justice Building, Stitch calmly waited on the velvet couch, drumming his slender fingers on his thigh. He could have sworn that his heart was going to pound out of his chest. Stitch tried to breathe in deeply and relax himself, but he was scared and nervous to see his mother and friend before he died. Would he tell his mother, or only Connor? The prospect of telling the two of them scared him half to death.

_Halfway there,_ he dismally thought to himself. Just then the door to his room opened, and his tired looking mom stepped in, tears running down her splotchy cheeks. Her short hair looked ruffled, and she smiled sadly when she grabbed him for a big hug.

And that was when Stitch lost it. He began to sob into his mother's strong, comforting shoulder. He had always been a 'Mama's boy', but he didn't really mind. He had lost his father when he was six, to lung cancer from the factory conditions, and hadn't had the chance to really know his dad. His connection with his mother was stronger than anything. Except maybe steel fiber, which his father had made in the factory.

His mother cried softly too, smoothing her son's short hair back. "Shh," she cooed, "shh, son." They rocked in an embrace like that, not saying anything really, because what was there to say when your son was destined to die? She couldn't have told him it would be okay, because it would most certainly not end up being okay, and they both knew that.

"I love you, Mommy," Stitch whispered into her. He hadn't called her that in years. She smiled sadly, tears escaping her dull blue eyes.

"I love you too, baby," she whispered back to him. Stitch wished for the moment to never end, but all good things must come to an end, and she was pulled away from him.

He stood motionless as his mother, the woman who had raised him, who had worked her finger to the very bone to keep him alive and happy, was being dragged away, helpless and scared and worried. Stitch tried to bite back the oncoming tears, but they were already there once, so they pushed by again, leaving him sobbing into his hands, standing there in the middle of the ridiculously polished and clean room. He sniffled and coughed on tears before he felt another pair of arms around him.

Connor.

Stitch wrapped his arms around his skinny friend. After a moment, Connor pulled away, tears in his own muddy green eyes. Stitch wiped his face off with the already-dirty sleeve of his nice shirt.

"Man, you're mom's gonna kill you for that mess of a shirt," Connor said, trying to kid around with Stitch. But both of them heard the quiver in his voice, both saw the way Connor looked down at his freckled hands as he said it.

"She didn't notice," Stitch mumbled to his hands the Connor did.

Connor stuffed his hands into his pockets and rocked back on his heels. "So. Those bullies are definitely feel like assholes if they didn't before." Stitch laughed meekly, still nervous and debating about whether or not he was actually going to tell Connor his secret. They probably had less than a few minutes, so he would have to do it any second.

"Connor, I've been thinking, and since I'm gonna die and all, I thought I'd tell you now so I didn't have any last-minute regrets before I died." Stitch blurted it all out, a blush creeping up his neck to his hollow cheeks.

Connor looked at him suspiciously, wondering what his friend was planning on saying. He thought about making another joke, but thought better of it: Stitch looked like he was serious.

"Connor, you're my best friend and we've been friends forever now, but I think I like you more than that." The words spilled from his mouth, leaving a sour, ugly taste in his mouth. Regret washed over him when Connor didn't react at all. _Why the hell did I tell him?_ Stitch asked himself, tears welling back into his eyes.

And as Stitch had predicted, Connor reacted negatively. "Whoa, man, I know we're friends, but I don't feel that way. That's…" Connor paused, searching for a word. "Weird. It's unnatural." He shook his head and backed away from Stitch. "Dude…" And without anything else, Connor Thread turned his back and left his best friend standing in the middle of a dusty room in a dusty district with nothing else to live for.

….

Katleen Nami had no one visit her. At least, no one who cared for her. Boys she didn't remember filed into the room, hugging her and telling her she could win. Katie stood stiffly, growing more and more hollow with each person. She could feel herself drifting away, care and love and hate all leaving her. She wasn't anything.

**District Nine Reaping:**

~~Jakke Tal's Point of View~~

"May the odds be ever in his favor."

Jakke couldn't quite think when his name was plucked from the glass bowl behind the hideous escort of District Nine. He stopped breathing, his head was spinning, and his heartbeat sped up much more than it should have. He was scared to death. He was going to die.

And when the people began to push and shove him toward the impromptu stage, he broke down into tears, great heaves of sobs that racked his tiny body. Some people around him sighed, whispering about how sorry they were, but really, most were just extremely glad that they hadn't been chosen. The Reaping was nearly over, and people wanted to get home to throw parties or do whatever it was they did when their child lived for another year.

But Jakke would never get to experience one of those parties. He was twelve, and it was his very first Reaping. So it wasn't possible that he could have escaped death in that way. He wasn't going to escape death.

Up until a year ago, he had thought that the Hunger Games were just a party where you could win food and money. He had thought that you could win happiness if you won the Games. But on his twelfth birthday, his parents had finally sat him down to talk about the reality of the Hunger Games. They told him that twenty-four girls and boys were shipped off to a big, scary district where they were prepared, poorly, but nonetheless prepared, to fight in a big game. And only one person could win the game, one person could come home to their families. Everyone else died, they explained ever so gently. And Jakke, being the gentle soul he was, cried his heart out for days, thinking of all the children who had died.

His parents decided that he was too soft for their world, so they tried to shield the best they could, but their efforts could only do so much for young Jakke as he approached the stage in the District Square. The scary lady next to Jakke asked for volunteers, just like she did for the pretty blonde girl on stage, and as expected, no one made a single noise. People stood still, but were very anxious to get home to their children and parents and to be away from the death. A loud, single sob escaped from the dam of silence, and then it rocketed up into more sobs until the Peacekeepers had to drag the woman away from the audience. People stared back in solemn silence, feeling sorry, but not sorry enough to stop the contact of club on skin, not sorry enough to stop the wailing and screaming, and not sorry enough to say anything to the brutal Peacekeepers as they dragged the woman's limp body away.

District Nine had been a rather strict and swift district to its citizens. The district would do what it could in order to get what needed to be done, and they didn't care how they did it. So if it meant beating an innocent woman into submission, so be it. They were getting the Reaping on with, and that was the matter at hand, not some grievous, unreasonable woman.

"Ladies and gents, I give you the tributes from District Eight, of the Thirty-Second Annual Hunger Games, Jakke Tal and Jordan Faith!" The escort, Sprinkle Stint, grabbed the children's hands into her own fat ones, and raised them into the darkening sky. Nobody cheered, instead they turned away immediately and filed away from the pen in the District Square.

"So much for an after-party," the girl, Jordan, muttered as they were escorted into the Justice Building. Jakke smiled a little, but he couldn't be consoled. He was going to die, and he knew it.

They were herded to their individual rooms, and once he got into his own room, Jakke plopped down onto the couch and cried. He was dead. He knew it. There was no doubt in his or anybody's mind about it, either.

~~Jordan Faith's Point of View~~

As she calmly sat down on the soft sofa, Jordan wondered how an average morning fighting with Lorena could end up with her possible execution. Nothing had seemed off with fate to her. Everything was fine, at least, when she had woken up everything was fine. Now, nothing was as it should have been.

Jordan smoothed out the wrinkles in her flannel shirt with shaking hands. She had been resisting the urge to break down since her name had been called in that squeaking microphone by that screeching woman. But she had looked out, and seen Ed's beautiful face there, and gained enough courage to continue the long walk to the deadly stage. On the way there, she had wondered what would happen if she just didn't go up on stage, since they couldn't hurt or kill her before the Games, since that would defeat the whole purpose. But she wasn't brave enough to find out, so she went up obediently, and that was how she ended up on the plush sofa of the Justice Building.

She closed her eyes and tried to relax. Was it a possibility, winning, surviving? Could she do it? She doubted herself, she doubted it all, but she had to give in to indulging thought that anything could happen, that there was a possibility.

She was thinking these things when her family came in, tears running down their faces. Her mother came in, her gray-blond hair looking limp and wet. Her father followed close behind, his hand closed around Lorena's small one. They all looked wet; it must have been raining on them as they waited to be allowed to see her.

Jordan stood up and went one by one down the line of her family, hugging each one, trying her hardest not to cry, but failing once she got to Lorena, her eight year old arms wrapped around her big sister's body.

"Jordie, promise you'll come back to us?" Lorena whispered into her big sister's long golden hair. Jordan felt tears prick behind her eyes, and then she was crying to her sister. "Please? I love you!"

"I love you, too, Lori. I'll try my hardest to come back," she said, lifting Lorena up into her arms. At eight, Lorena should have been too big to be lifted up, but she was very small for her age, for the district even, and it wasn't from malnourishment. She was just very small, like her short older sister.

"I don't want you to leave us," Lorena said, tears wetting Jordan's shoulder.

"I don't want to either, baby, but I have to go," Jordan replied honestly.

She set Lorena back down and turned to her parents. All of them were crying at that point.

"Mom," Jordan started, "Dad, I love you guys both so, so much. Thank you so much, for everything."

Her father's clear blue eyes were hard and angry. "No. Don't act like that, don't act like you're not coming back, Jordan Faith. This isn't a damned final goodbye. You are coming home, young lady."

Jordan laughed weakly. She stepped forward and hugged her father, whispering, "I wish it was that easy, Daddy. I really do, but it can't be. The odds aren't in my favor."

"My baby girl," he whispered as they hugged. It had finally collapsed on him: his eldest daughter was going to die. "Oh my God…"

"I know, Daddy. I'm so sorry," Jordan choked out, tears leaking.

"It's not your fault, darling," he said back, stroking her hair. "I love you, so much. I wish I could have protected you more. I really do."

"I know."

And before she could say goodbye to her mother, the Peacekeepers were pulling her family from the room, tears and loving words in their wake.

She was sitting down when Eddie came into her room, and they immediately joined in an embrace. She cried quietly into his strong shoulder, and he whispered kind things to her.

Ed and Jordan weren't dating, they were just great friends. At least, that's what they told themselves. People around them always commented, "You two are just the cutest." And Ed and Jordan would just laugh and deny the fact they were 'going out', but each wondered silently what it would be like.

"I can't return," she told him. The truth stung like a needle to a finger, but it was true. "I can't come back home, Eddie."

And he didn't lie. "I know, J. I know, and I wish so much that you could make it back here. I just want to know that you fought before you went. Can promise me you'll try?"

She nodded into him, needing no words. They stood silently, hugging.

"Jordan, I think you should know that I really like you," Ed told her quietly.

"Isn't that required when being friends with someone? A mutual liking?" Jordan responded, smiling just slightly.

"Well, yeah, but I _really_ like you. Like, I want to be the father of your children," Ed said with a lazy grin on his wary face.

Jordan opened her eyes wide. "No, no you don't."

He laughed, replied, "Yes, I do, and you haven't any right to tell me what I do and don't."

"Oh, yeah? And what is it exactly you want to do?" she asked, hands on hips.

"This."

…

Jakke's father came to see him off before he left. He told Jakke that the scream was from his mother, Hazel, and that she was at home recovering from the beating. Jakke was so worried about her upon hearing about her condition.

His father was fairly brief, and gave him a final hug before leaving without the push of a Peacekeeper.

Jakke burst into tears the second his father left him. His mother might die, and he might, too. Everything was awful for him.

**A/N: Hello, folks! I am alive, it's true. I must admit, I was fairly done with this story when I posted the rather dismal chapter a few months back, and I feel bad for letting writer's block get that bad. But now, clearly, I have regained my thirst for writing, and I am going to try writing this story whenever possible, same as for my other ones!**

**Thank you all for reviewing the last chapter and giving me so much support and love about this story, it really means so much.**

**And special thanks for ****vampirevampirevampire****, who reminded me that this story needs some TLC. Thanks for the support!**

**I will try to continue with the sponsorship stuff, but the trivia was getting a bit overwhelming, so I am going to stop trivia until the arena, and only do points for reviews. So review and save a life!**

**Also, as you may know, many a people have given up on this story, so if you want to adopt a tribute, so to speak, PM me and ask about a certain person! Chances are, they've been abandoned. If you are reading this, and plan on taking someone in, thank you. Readers are awesome.**

**Thank you all so much, again. I love you, and will try to update ASAP!**


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